{"id":126130,"date":"2025-09-07T08:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T08:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126130\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T08:03:07","slug":"sabalenka-defeats-anisimova-for-second-consecutive-u-s-open-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126130\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka defeats Anisimova for second consecutive U.S. Open title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, reacts after defeating the U.S.’s Amanda Anisimova during the women’s finals of the U.S. Open tennis championships on Saturday in New York.Yuki Iwamura\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka did not make many mistakes \u2013\u2060 well, until near the end \u2013\u2060 despite not sacrificing any power, and outplayed Amanda Anisimova for a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory in the U.S. Open final Saturday, making her the first woman to win the tournament in consecutive years since Serena Williams more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

The No. 1-ranked Sabalenka picked up the fourth Grand Slam title of her career, all on hard courts. This was not all smooth sailing, though.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka twice led by a break in the second set, and served for the win at 5-4. But at 30-all, so close to the trophy, she had a chance to hit an overhead and get to match point. Instead, while backpedaling, Sabalenka put the ball into the net, giving Anisimova a break chance.<\/p>\n

After that excruciating miss, Sabalenka dropped her racket on the blue court and smiled a rueful smile. A moment later, Anisimova \u2013\u2060 a 24-year-old American \u2013\u2060 converted the break to get to 5-all and shook her left fist while 24,000 or so of her closest friends in Arthur Ashe Stadium rose to applaud and shout.<\/p>\n

But 15 minutes after the flub, Sabalenka was kneeling on the court and covering her face with both hands, coming through on her third match point.<\/p>\n

She avoided becoming the first woman to lose three major finals in a single season since Justine Henin in 2006.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka, a 27-year-old from Belarus, was the runner-up to Madison Keys at the Australian Open in January and to Coco Gauff at the French Open. Then, at Wimbledon in July, Sabalenka was eliminated by Anisimova.<\/p>\n

That put Anisimova into her first major final, which she lost 6-0, 6-0 to Iga Swiatek.<\/p>\n

But Anisimova put that shutout behind her immediately, well enough to win a rematch against Swiatek in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

When Anisimova trailed Sabalenka 2-0, 30-love as Saturday\u2019s match began, some fans might have wondered: There\u2019s no way there\u2019s going to be a repeat of the final at the All England Club, right Right.<\/p>\n

Anisimova grabbed the next four points to break back, capping the game with a backhand winner and a forehand winner. That got the partisan fans up on their feet, shouting, and Anisimova exhaled as she walked to the sideline and wiped sweat from her forehead.<\/p>\n

Soon, she led 3-2. But Sabalenka took the next four games and that set.<\/p>\n

It began pouring before the match, so Ashe\u2019s artificial lights were on, and its retractable roof was shut. That appeared to be a distraction at times to Anisimova, who motioned to her team in the stands that something was bothering her during ball tosses for serves.<\/p>\n

The setup also created windless conditions, ideal for two ball-strikers who really can bring the power with good contact. And that\u2019s what they both did from the start, striking speedy serves and deep groundstrokes with so much pace that responding was never simple.<\/p>\n

Some exchanges were breathtaking \u2013\u2060 to them, certainly, and to spectators who gasped at the power during longer points.<\/p>\n

Both are aggressive during back-and-forths and rarely are risk-averse. The rewards can be huge, as can the mistakes, and Anisimova was seeking the lines with full cuts off both sides.<\/p>\n

Of Sabalenka\u2019s first 13 points, which helped her claim the initial two games, just one came via her own winner. The other dozen arrived thanks to Anisimova\u2019s six unforced errors and six forced errors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, reacts after defeating the U.S.’s Amanda Anisimova during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,593,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-126130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-tennis","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}