No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka became the first woman to win consecutive US open titles on Saturday since Serena Williams in 2013 and 2014.
Sabalenka didn’t appear to have an absolute A-game on Saturday, but she didn’t need it as Anishimova seemed to struggle early with the nerves of the final appearance of her second Grand Slam. The young American was better than a 6-0, 6-0 defeat to Iga Swiethek in the Wimbledon Final earlier this year, but she managed to shake things up by making whimsical mistakes in both her serve and ground strokes.
The serve struggle mostly showed when she didn’t get her first serve as Sabalenka attacked with her second serve and scored 18 of the 28 points when returning those efforts (including seven double faults from Anishimoba). Beyond that, Anisimova has clearly won a game plan against the world’s No. 1. It produced not only some great winners (22 in the match), but also many forced errors (29 in total).
Sabalenka appears to recognize that Anishimoba is being pushed early, making adjustments to her offensive opponent, and on her own power he pushes Anishmoba back further back behind the baseline, but did not force the matter. Instead, Sabalenka relied on her powerful serve and allowed Anishimoba to make a mistake. The world’s No. 1 produced 13 winners and 15 forced errors, but was able to control the match at key moments.
Anisimova showed great resolve to force a tiebreak in the second set, picking up a late break with Sabalenka, who was about to put out the match 5-4. However, Sabalenka showed why he entered the match 20-1 in the tiebreak this season.
The victory saw Sabalenka win her fourth Grand Slam title, with all appearing on the hard court. She has now won a Grand Slam title in the last three years and will remain number one world ranking with a significant margin entering the 2026 season.
For Anisimova, it’s another tough loss in the final, but she showed growth from her Wimbledon performance and a great fight to push Sabalenka to the finish while the nerves were still present.
