{"id":63368,"date":"2025-08-13T06:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63368\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T06:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:12:08","slug":"astonishing-stat-emerges-after-aryna-sabalenka-battles-past-emma-raducanu-in-cincinnati-open-to-continue-us-open-preparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/63368\/","title":{"rendered":"Astonishing stat emerges after Aryna Sabalenka battles past Emma Raducanu in Cincinnati Open to continue US Open preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The duel, which lasted three hours and 12 minutes, proved yet another swashbuckling contest between the two, following on from their third-round Wimbledon clash<\/a> in July – a straight-set victory for Sabalenka which belied the competitiveness of their Centre Court showcase.<\/p>\n

It marks somewhat of a frustration for Raducanu, who has looked as though she could spring a real upset in both recent meetings before falling just short, so just what is holding her back? <\/p>\n

Well, a quite remarkable stat emerged after their clash in Ohio, which may just explain it.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka – the tie-break queen<\/p>\n

Sabalenka won two tie-breaks en route to downing Raducanu, continuing a consistent theme throughout her 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n

By WTA<\/a>‘s calculations, the three-time Grand Slam champion took her tally of victorious tie-breaks to 18 for the calendar year – setting a new record for a women’s player in the Open Era. Making that statistic even more impressive is the fact she has only played a total of 19 tie-breaks this year – and won 16 in succession<\/a>.\"picture\"<\/p>\n

Top five shots from Sabalenka’s run to Wimbledon semi-finals<\/p>\n

Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n

Is there, perhaps, room to find concern in that statistic? After all, Sabalenka’s big-hitting game is designed to blow her opponents away. <\/p>\n

Combined, between her Australian Open triumphs in 2023 and 2024, and her US Open title run last year, Sabalenka needed just three tie-breaks in her dominant romps to lifting the three trophies.<\/p>\n

Things have not been quite so straightforward for the 27-year-old this year.<\/p>\n

Wimbledon will have perhaps frustrated Sabalenka the most, having not even made the final, instead crashing out to Amanda Anisimova – the American who suffered a double-bagel final defeat to Iga Swiatek<\/a> – in the semis. <\/p>\n

However, Sabalenka’s imperious tie-break record does show an immense mettle about her game. <\/p>\n

Despite a staggering 72 unforced errors against Raducanu, the Belarusian kept her nerve when it mattered most – despite clearly feeling the effects of the demanding humidity in Cincinnati – to sail through to the next round.<\/p>\n

The match featured just about everything, including a 32-point game in which Raducanu eventually staved off four break points to hold for 4-4 in the deciding set.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka confessed to having to play a high-risk game in order to get the better of the Brit. <\/p>\n

“I think it was all about the momentum, all about the risk in this game, because at the end I went for crazy shots,” Sabalenka said<\/a>. “I think it was a little bit of a risky game from me and it really helped to put a lot of pressure on her.”<\/p>\n

Sabalenka will aim to get a first major title of the season under her belt at the US Open, which commences on Sunday, August 24.<\/p>\n

Should she fail to defend her title, it will mark the first time a women’s world No. 1 has completed a season without winning a Grand Slam<\/a> since the Covid-disrupted 2020 campaign. Watch and stream top tennis action live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The duel, which lasted three hours and 12 minutes, proved yet another swashbuckling contest between the two, following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[7307,6962,101,118,56,54,55,30557],"class_list":{"0":"post-63368","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-emma-raducanu","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-wta-cincinnati"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63368","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=63368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}