By James Beck
The best friend of Aryna Sabalenka on a tennis court is the tiebraker, at least it was in the US Open Women’s final on Saturday.
The hard Belarusian lost the first point of a decisive second set of Tiebreaker to one of the large portions of Amanda Anisimova, but then it was the time of Sabalenka to hit her own enormous serving.
Sabalenka won the next six points. She served four of those points and won them all to break open the tiebreaker. It is clear that Sabalenka loves her serve.
Three points later Sabalenka owned her second straight US Open title.
Tiebreaker decided the problem
Thank you, serve, Sabalenka might have thought of herself while she accepted her payment day of $ 5 million after her 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Anisimova.
All that came a bit after Sabalenka had ruined a certain lob overhead from Sabalenka or had beaten just a few feet from the center of the net that could have given her a match point and possibly a 6-3 second set without having to work the pressure of holding to force the tiebreak.
Winning a third set was perhaps not that easy for Sabalenka to achieve a second consecutive success in Open Finals in US.
Remember that Anisimova came in the weekend with a 6-3 lead in matches against Sabalenka.
Sabalenka was ready for everything
In this meeting Sabalenka seemed to be ready for everything Anisimova threw her way. Amazingly enough, Sabalenka outhit anisimova usually.
Sabalenka surpassed Anisimova in her own game. They out-hit anisimova and is certainly better moved. Sabalenka hit so aggressively and hard in her own play that Anisimova could not control the pace of playing. Sabalenka was clearly in charge of most of the competition that gave her a 100one Grand Slam Main Draw Match victory.
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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for printed media. A MBA graduate MBA from the Citadel, he can be reached at jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
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