{"id":139458,"date":"2025-09-07T13:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139458\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T13:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T13:34:12","slug":"u-s-open-title-cements-aryna-sabalenkas-season-as-one-of-consistency-and-taming-emotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/139458\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Open title cements Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s season as one of consistency and taming emotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. \u2014 With one victory Saturday night, Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> transformed her whole year.<\/p>\n

What otherwise would have been a \u201cnearly season\u201d for the ages, she can instead look back on as one of the most consistent campaigns in recent tennis memory. A second U.S. Open title, secured with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over Amanda Anisimova, following runner-up finishes at the Australian and French Opens and a semifinal at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

By winning the U.S. Open, Sabalenka has completely upended the narrative that her year should be viewed as exposing a tendency to buckle under pressure when it matters most.<\/p>\n

Three Grand Slam titles even before Saturday night would have rendered that idea nonsensical, but being a world No. 1 without holding one of the four majors would not have sat well with Sabalenka. And the pressure on her at the Australian Open would have been suffocating had she lost another final here. Especially if she had done so having missed a smash deep into the second set that would have given her a match point. That she was able to recover and close out the match in the tiebreak speaks to her strength of character.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat (smash) was the moment, but then, yeah, I turned around, and I took a deep breath in, and I was like, \u2018OK, it happens. It\u2019s in the past. Let\u2019s focus on the next one,\u2019\u201d Sabalenka said in a post-match news conference.<\/p>\n

But how much was riding on this match also underlines the fact that Sabalenka is a player who seems to constantly tread a fine line between triumph and implosion. Her final news conference at the French Open saw her angrily venting about her performance and the conditions; two majors later, she sauntered into the interview room with a bottle of Moet champagne and novelty sunglasses.<\/p>\n

Aryna made quite an entrance to her press conference \ud83c\udf7e pic.twitter.com\/lTjPKokRWp<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

The swings in fortune tend to be drastic with Sabalenka. Even early-round matches are often up-and-down affairs in which she can look on the brink of losing control at various points. She invariably gets through, and a bit like Carlos Alcaraz, even though her focus can waver in matches, the bigger picture is one of remarkable consistency. She has reached the semifinals or better in 11 of her last 12 Grand Slams and has made six finals in her previous eight. Sabalenka is the runaway world No. 1, and by winning Saturday, she became the first singles champion, man or woman, to successfully defend the U.S. Open since Serena Williams in 2014.<\/p>\n

But this year offers a neat encapsulation of why she hasn\u2019t yet completely taken over the WTA Tour. It\u2019s an exaggeration to say Sabalenka doesn\u2019t produce her best in major finals, but it\u2019s not totally wide of the mark. Certainly against Coco Gauff at the French Open in June, where her performance \u2014 in her own words, \u201cterrible\u201d \u2014 didn\u2019t meet the standards one would expect from a dominant world No. 1. At the Australian Open, Madison Keys played the braver tennis down the stretch, as did Anisimova in their Wimbledon semifinal.<\/p>\n

All of which leaves the WTA Tour feeling typically unpredictable and full of parity heading into 2026. Sabalenka will be the favorite to win a third Australian Open in four years, but there are no guarantees. Four-time champion Iga \u015awi\u0105tek must still be considered the default favorite for the French Open, while Wimbledon, with 11 different winners in 12 editions, remains anyone\u2019s guess. The U.S. Open feels like Sabalenka\u2019s domain, but Anisimova, a finalist at the last two slams, could be a factor at any of the four.<\/p>\n

The way Anisimova rebounded from her 6-0, 6-0 loss to \u015awi\u0105tek in the Wimbledon final in July to beat the same player this week was a remarkable turnaround. She said she also learned a lot from that first Grand Slam final, which she applied in her much better showing against Sabalenka on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Where Sabalenka has retained an edge on the field is through her desire to constantly evolve. Not just by adding more variety and touch to a game that was previously pretty one-dimensional, but in how she thinks and the people on her team. \u015awi\u0105tek is going through a similar process with coach Wim Fissette<\/a>, while world No. 3 Gauff is remodeling her serve<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the final, her performance coach, Jason Stacy, talked about how Sabalenka is constantly adding layers. That could be the addition of the drop shot as a weapon in her arsenal, or it could be something more psychological, which was more the priority over the last few challenging months.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka gestures toward her coaching staff during her match against Coco Gauff at the French Open. (Julian Finney \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

After losing the French Open final \u2014 an even more frazzling affair because of her heavily criticized post-match comments about the poor quality of her play \u2014 Sabalenka took control of the situation. She talked in her on-court interview Saturday night about learning lessons from her Grand Slam final defeats this year, then later explained that in trying to forget about her Australian Open and move on, she realized she needed to face what had happened at Roland Garros head-on. While on holiday on the Greek island of Mykonos, she asked herself why she was allowing her emotions to take over in big matches. Why was she assuming she would win every final she played just by turning up?<\/p>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s perspective was helped by reading James R. Doty\u2019s book \u201cInto the Magic Shop,\u201d about the human brain and in part explaining how and why people overthink. \u201cReading that book, I realized a lot of things,\u201d Sabalenka said Saturday. \u201cThat book really helped me to stay focused and to focus on the right things on important points.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka called a meeting with her team to try to make sense of what had happened in Paris and explain her new mindset and willingness to address the challenges that the year had thrown up. \u201cFor us, that was a really nice thing that she started to actually initiate wanting to figure some things out, to talk about it and get things out of her head,\u201d Stacy said in a news conference. \u201cBecause before, she would have a habit of keeping it to herself until it becomes something bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stacy added that the player who has a tiger tattoo on her left arm \u201csometimes has this internal battle of how to keep that tiger under control but let it free at the same time. So there\u2019s this constant battle that she\u2019s revisiting.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a battle Sabalenka won on Saturday. There were a couple of moments \u2014 after missing that smash two points from victory and after being broken midway through the first set \u2014 when previously the tiger might have gotten out of control. \u201cGoing into this final, I decided for myself that I\u2019m going to control my emotions,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to let them take control over me, and (it) doesn\u2019t matter what happens in the match \u2014 if she breaks me back or if she plays incredible tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mindset was just going out there, fight for every point. Doesn\u2019t matter the situation. Just focus on myself and focus on things that I have to do to win the match. I think from what I understand today, that\u2019s the lesson learned, and I really hope it will never happen again \u2014 that I will be more in control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka also spoke about her decision to stop working with her long-term psychologist a couple of years ago because she felt she was becoming too reliant on her. She has never been afraid to shake up the team around her.<\/p>\n

That includes this year, when, after Wimbledon, she added fellow Belarusian Max Mirnyi<\/a>, the former doubles world No. 1 and top-20 singles player, to her coaching group. Lead coach Anton Dubrov was a big driver for that change. He was once told by Jannik Sinner\u2019s coach Darren Cahill that in his view, once a coach has been with a player for three years, they almost stop listening them, because they feel like they know what the coach is going to say in any given situation.<\/p>\n

Dubrov has been coaching Sabalenka for five years and didn\u2019t want their partnership to become stale. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m always asking Aryna, \u2018What can we do?\u2019 Because it\u2019s pretty normal to move on to find someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka was clear she didn\u2019t want to make that kind of change, but they agreed to ask Mirnyi to join the team. The pair have known each other for years, and after a weeklong training block together in an informal capacity, it was clear this was an additional layer that would help Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

As a six-time men\u2019s doubles Grand Slam champion, as well as the winner of an Olympic gold medal, he has experience delivering in big moments. And his technical knowledge of shots like the serve and volley, both of which he was outstanding at, has been valued by Sabalenka and the rest of the team. \u201cShe\u2019s got plenty of tools,\u201d Mirnyi said Friday. \u201cMe entering the team is just maybe \u2014 it\u2019s a delicate mission because if I can only add one or two extra tools in her toolbox that she can operate with, I would consider my mission complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was certainly the case Saturday, and it sets up Sabalenka for 2026. It\u2019ll be a year next month since Sabalenka assumed the world No. 1 ranking from \u015awi\u0105tek on a points technicality associated with mandatory tournaments, which by winning the U.S. Open she has well and truly converted into a position of merit. But different winners at all of the majors this year, for the seventh time in nine seasons, points to a far more equitable distribution of power than on the men\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Still, Saturday it was clear that Sabalenka, with a champagne bottle in hand and a few demons slayed, remains the woman to beat.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n