New York – Without occasional humiliation, you can’t become the world’s number one tennis player Aryna Sabalenka. When you play as many big matches as she has, in the same bold game as she plays, and with the pressure of being a favorite almost always — when something goes wrong, there’s nowhere to hide.
Sabalenka will be the first to tell you that she hasn’t handled that part of her job well all the time.
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Just as she won, her resume is filled with the Grand Slam title she gave. The fallout was often ugly when something went wrong and the emotional Vesuvius began to bubble her six-foot body.
“If I reached the final, it means I was going to win it and not expecting the players to come out and fight,” she said Saturday night. “I thought everything would go easily in my own way, but that was a completely wrong idea.”
And this scene was ready for a repetition inside Arthur Ash Stadium late Saturday afternoon.
Sabalenka was thoroughly ousted Amanda Anishimoba and creeping up within two points of the second straight US open title. She hit the forehand that sent Anishimoba, who sent a corner-to-corner sprint, a ball that earns at least 90% of the time. Somehow, Anishimova scrambled to get her racket and stuffed it high in the air. All Sabalenka had to do was destroy it with a simple overhead to the open court.
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Instead, it went into the bottom of the net.
The crowd at Arthur Ash Stadium begged for reasons to engage in the match and exploded. For the first time throughout the day, Anishimoba felt that something might start to go down her path. And Sabalenka, who had felt the weight of these potential turning points in many of the past Grand Slam Finals, knew that it was all about the way she responded.
“I was really close to losing it,” she said. “Because you can’t make these mistakes at important points.”
In the first shock of that moment, Sabalenka dropped her racket, followed her lips, flashing a sheep-like look towards the coach’s box.
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But instead of erupting, she closed her eyes. She sucked deeply. And most of all, she returned to work.
“I’m really proud of myself,” she said.
About 15 minutes later, Sabalenka became the four-time major champion, beating Anishimoba 6-3, 7-6 (3);
This year alone, Sabalenka lost three sets of gut checks to the Madison Keys in the Australian Open Finals. At the French Open, she served as a set for Coco Gouf, appearing on the title’s clash course until the windy state and Gouf’s nasty defenses get under her skin. And at Wimbledon, Anishimova was a mentally tough player in the third set of the semi-finals, marking three desperately close losses to the major American.
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However, Sabalenka’s meltdown history is much longer than that, especially at the US Open. She was an overwhelming favorite in the last 2021, but lost the plot completely in the semi-final against unseeded longshot Leila Fernandez. In the 2023 final, she struggled to keep the ball on the court, being deeply influenced by the crowd’s roots against her.
The track record suggested that such a dramatic mistake could be one of the moments when her world fell apart, near the finish line.
But this is another sabalenka. It may have taken a full season to get there, but the rewards were just worth the price.
“After the Australians opened, I thought the right way was to forget about it and move on, but the same thing happened with the French,” she said. “So, then, I thought it was time for me to sit down and watch those finals and learn something because I didn’t want it to happen again and again.
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“When I entered this final, I decided to control my emotions. I’m not going to let them control me.”
Here’s the backstory of Sabalenka’s fragile history at these moments: She had a lot of experience and she knew the problems.
This time, when the test arrived, she was more prepared than ever.
Anisimova changed the break after an opponent’s shocking whimsical smash and scored a 6-5 lead in the second set, but Sabalenka’s new settling paid off. She ran through the dominant service game and sent the set to the tiebreaker, and was a much more stable player. After Anisimova opened in the ACE, she made an error with the next five points, making Sabalenka the commander.
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As Anishimoba’s final shot sailed heavily, Sabalenka fell to her lap and placed her hand on her face. Her body stayed at baseline for several more moments, her body twitching, before she stood up to reveal her 1,000 watt smile as if it were her first Grand Slam title.
This was different.
“I felt like I had to overcome a lot to get this,” she said. “I knew it through the efforts I put in. This season was worthy of winning a Grand Slam title, so it was a real emotion to protect this title, bringing such a great tennis player and treating my emotions in my way.
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Sabalenka has placed herself at these moments more than the female players from her Serena Williams Post Williams era, putting in the semi-finals of 11 of the last 12 grand slams she played. It’s an incredible consistency, but Sabalenka’s success often feels hidden by her most dramatic and famous failures.
In her fourth Grand Slam title, she held back her worst impulses and won at the moment when she needed self-control to pull her out. It’s time for that story to change forever.
