Aryna Sabalenka found herself in a familiar spot Friday night \u2013 facing multiple break points in her opening service game, just as she had in the second round earlier this week.<\/p>\n
This time, the World No. 1 held firm, saving three break points to take an early lead in a match she never trailed.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka defeated No. 31 seed Leylah Fernandez for the first time in her career, winning 6-3, 7-6 (2) in 1 hour and 39 minutes before a packed crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/p>\n
US Open: Draws<\/a> | Scores<\/a> | Order of Play<\/a><\/p>\n With the victory, she advanced to the fourth round of the US Open for the fifth consecutive year and avenged her loss to Fernandez in the 2021 semifinals.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely an exciting match,\u201d Sabalenka said after the match. \u201cLast time we met, it was a great battle. She played an incredible match, and I wanted this revenge badly, so I\u2019m super happy with the win. She\u2019s a great player, a great competitor and always brings you the fight on court.\u201d<\/p>\n Fernandez brought the fight once again on this occasion, fueled by the vocal support of the crowd. She forced three break points in the opening game and pushed Sabalenka through an 11-minute, 20-point battle before the top seed finally held serve.<\/p>\n Sabalenka flipped the momentum in the next game, earning two break points of her own. Fernandez saved the second with a brilliant cross-court backhand winner, but couldn\u2019t hold off Sabalenka a few games later, double-faulting on break point to hand over the first break of the match.<\/p>\n Sabalenka closed out the set with a trio of routine holds, securing the opener without facing further pressure.<\/p>\n The second set had a little bit of everything \u2013 including a marriage proposal from the stands (she said yes!) \u2013 except a break of serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only one break point materialized in the entire set, which Sabalenka saved to hold for 3-3, keeping the match on serve until the tiebreak.<\/p>\n Once the tiebreak began, any lingering suspense quickly vanished.<\/p>\n Sabalenka earned an immediate mini-break, and after Fernandez leveled the score, the unofficial queen of tiebreaks rattled off five straight points to take a commanding 6-1 lead. She sealed the win with a dazzling cross-court forehand pass that sent her not only into the US Open Round of 16 \u2013 but also into a split.<\/p>\n It marked her 20th tiebreak win of the season in 21 attempts, and her 18th in a row.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following a third consecutive straight-sets victory to open her title defense, Sabalenka will face Cristina Bucsa in the next round. It will be their first career meeting.<\/p>\n As she prepares for the stretch run in New York, Sabalenka offered a glimpse into her outlook for the remainder of the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mindset is to go out there every time, bring the best fighting spirit and just fight for my dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka found herself in a familiar spot Friday night \u2013 facing multiple break points in her opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-103215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}