Jake Michaels, ESPN Senior Editor
MELBOURNE, Australia — The primary handover Zheng Qinwen despatched all the way down to Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s Australian Unhidden ladies’s ultimate was once slapped again over the web with such a lot venom that it virtually handed the arena Incorrect. 12 ahead of she was once ready to jam her racket unwell on it.
It was once that usual signal of speedy intent from Sabalenka, one thing which had held her in superior stead this fortnight at Melbourne Soil. It additionally left negligible unsureness in any person’s thoughts as to which participant can be dictating phrases on this fit.
For 75 mins, Sabalenka bullied her Chinese language counterpart, smashing her strategy to Australian Unhidden glory for the second one era in as a few years. Her 6-3, 6-2 overcome Zheng capped probably the most dominant runs to a Slam identify in tennis historical past, with Sabalenka an excellent 14-14 in units, losing simply 31 video games en path to the identify.
Sabalenka by no means allowed first-time main finalist Zheng a future to pause. The arena Incorrect. 2 feasted on her handover, that very same handover which had proved Zheng’s largest weapon in her travel to the overall. If Sabalenka didn’t hit a near-unreturnable ball, it was once just a subject of seconds ahead of she was once in keep watch over of the purpose and had her opponent scrambling at the back of the baseline.
Zheng had deny solutions for the onslaught. Rather, the barrage from the alternative aspect of the courtroom seemed to drain her self assurance. The 21-year-old double faulted six occasions, 3 of them in her first provider sport of the second one eager handy any other speedy disintegrate to Sabalenka.
When it was once Sabalenka’s flip to handover, the overall most effective seemed extra one-sided. She gained 84% of the issues by which she landed her first handover and, with the exception of her opening provider sport, didn’t surrender a unmarried break-point alternative till the overall sport, when the ones pesky championship level nerves kicked in as soon as once more.
“I think Sabalenka is one of the most tough opponents I have faced,” Zheng mentioned then the fit. “She’s a really aggressive player. She takes away the rhythm compared to other players.
“It’s so notable to secure your individual provider sport [against Sabalenka], as a result of she had a in reality just right handover. However I couldn’t do this.”
From the moment Sabalenka began her Australian Open title defense, there had been an impending sense of inevitability that she was once again destined to be the last woman standing at Melbourne Park.
While it’s not uncommon for one of the world’s top players to dominate their first-round opponent at a Slam, Sabalenka’s 53-minute 6-0, 6-1 demolition of German qualifier Ella Seidel felt like a statement performance. In no way was she suffering the effects of an Australian Open hangover, rather she was picking up right where she left off 12 months ago.
The trend of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it matches continued through to the semifinals. Sabalenka never conceded more than three games in any set as she breezed into the last four. And while American fourth-seed Coco Gauff tested her in the semifinals, she rose to the challenge in such a way that left just about every tennis pundit convinced she would repeat her 2023 triumph two days later.
There weren’t many of those pressure moments in Saturday’s final, but that speaks to how Sabalenka was able to put the result beyond doubt before the sun had begun setting over Rod Laver Arena.
The scariest part for Sabalenka’s rivals might well be that the 25-year-old is still very much an unfinished project. Few, if any, can match her sheer power and aggression, but knowing how to control it and ensure it’s being used to her advantage, rather than to her detriment, is something she’s only beginning to learn. Her understanding of when to attack and when to play a more conservative brand of tennis, in a way that doesn’t detract from her obvious strengths, was on display in Saturday’s final.
In the first set, Sabalenka quickly fell into a 0-40 hole after she had broken for an early 2-0 lead. But there were no signs of panic or concern. No sign of trying to force something that wasn’t there. Instead, she calmly served her way out of trouble, reeling off five consecutive points to avoid the break.
It’s taken era for Sabalenka to be told she doesn’t at all times must shoot useless dangers via making an attempt to color the traces with each groundstroke. She’ll now, now and then, go for the extra calculated manner, forcing her fighters into errors — and it’s proving much more a hit.
Maximum would agree her run to the identify this fortnight has been much more important than how she completed the feat 365 days in the past, but on this marketing campaign she struck precisely part the quantity of winners as she did in 2023. Rather, the wear was once being achieved via forcing her fighters into errors. It was once deny other within the ultimate with Zheng committing 32 compelled mistakes around the two units, virtually one in each 3 issues.
There’s deny denying Sabalenka has been essentially the most constant participant at the ladies’s excursion since her leap forward at Wimbledon in 2021. Since later, deny participant has gained extra fits than her at the Slam level. She has made the overall 4 in seven of the extreme 9 majors, performed in 3 finals and now gained two of them.
Iga Swiatek will proceed to hold the arena Incorrect. 1 tag, however Sabalenka has closed the space significantly over the date 15 months. And with the trajectory she seems to be on, it sort of feels just a subject of era ahead of she usurps her.
