Sabalenka dedicates US Open title to her family

NEW YORK — Aryna Sabalenka dedicated her US Open title to her family who "never gave up on my dream" after achieving a third Grand Slam title amid a year of personal torment.

World No 2 Sabalenka defeated Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 to add a maiden New York crown to her back-to-back Australian Open titles.

The US Open is the first Grand Slam she has won since the death of her former boyfriend in March — she only made the last-eight at the French Open and missed Wimbledon with injury.

Ice hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, once a star of the NHL, died from apparent suicide at the age of 42.

Five years ago, Sabalenka's father Sergey passed away from meningitis at just 43.

"After I lost my father, it has always been my goal to put our family name in the history of tennis," said the 26-year-old Belarusian.

"Every time I see my name on that trophy, I'm so proud of myself, I'm proud of my family, that they never gave up on my dream and that they were doing everything they could to keep me going.

"I had this opportunity in life so it really means a lot. It has always been my dream."

On Saturday, Sabalenka summoned her familiar weapons of super-charged serve and brutal groundstrokes to defeat sixth-ranked Pegula.

Her 40 winners took her tournament total to 205 with 36 aces. She boasted the third-fastest serve of the competition of 191.5 km/h.

"I know that I have to go for it. That's the only way it works for me," said Sabalenka. "Every time I stop my arms, the ball flies in the stands, so, a long time ago, I decided for myself that, in those important moments, I just have to go for it. I have to swing."

Saturday's defeat, meanwhile, came during a roller-coaster year for former world No 3 Pegula.

After complaining of feeling burnt-out after the Australian Open, she was laid low by a rib injury, which forced her to sit out the European clay-court swing, including the French Open.

She marked her return to action by winning a title on the grass courts of Berlin.

"In Berlin I was super fresh and wanting to win these matches, and kind of fired up," said Pegula.

After second-round losses at Wimbledon and the Paris Olympics, Pegula raced to the Toronto title and finished runner-up to Sabalenka in Cincinnati.

She ended the US summer hardcourt season with 15 wins in 17 matches.

Pegula had lost in Grand Slam quarterfinals six times before finally breaking through to this year's US Open championship match.

Four of those losses came against the eventual champions.

In 2022, she fell to Ashleigh Barty at the Australian Open and to Iga Swiatek at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

At Wimbledon last year, it was Marketa Vondrousova who defeated her in the last eight, before the Czech went on to capture the title.

"I've lost again to a really good player today," she said on Saturday.

"I lost to girls that pretty much won the tournament every time. I had a rough start to the year, and I didn't really expect to be doing this well in the hard-court swing, but I was able to kind of flip that script."

"I will take a lot of confidence from this."

AFP