Sabalenka’s US Open Triumph shows that lessons have been learned

ARyna Sabalenka thought she had selected everything. She believed that she had done all the necessary work, successfully using her once uncontrollable power in consistent excellence. After she had overcome so many obstacles on her way to becoming the best player in the world, she felt ready for everything. Sabalenka was convinced that she can handle every challenge that came her way.

It was only in her unbearable French Open Final Department against Coco Gauff that Sabalenka understood that this was not true. While she was struggling with her nerves under such considerable pressure and the punishment of windy circumstances, the 27-year-old was surpassed by a tireless, gutsier opponent in Gauff who broke her by force her to work hard for each point.

In the days after that defeat, while the discourse went on about her next uncontrolled comments during her press conference, Sabalenka traveled to Mykonos, Greece with her friend, Georgios. She used the short break to drink tequila, to disconnect from tennis and to release steam, but Sabalenka devoted a lot of her time to think about her next steps. After her final defeat of Australian Open by Madison Keys, Sabalenka had believed that it was important to just continue with that game. Her performance in Paris, however, meant that alarm bells rang into her head.

“I was in Mykonos and read my book, enjoyed the view,” she said laughing. “And I just thought,” Why should I have my emotions control over me in those two finals? ” It felt like, “Ok, if I reached the final, this means I’m going to win.” And I didn’t expect players to come there and fight.

This season has been a lesson in humility, which shows that Sabalenka is always room for improvement and the work is never finished. She had unlocked so much of her game and achieved so much, at the highest level on the week, week out with few important dips, but that did not mean that everything would easily come to her.

Those lessons could all be seen on Saturday when Sabalenka killed one of the few players who could overwhelm her from the basic line. She kept her nerve in the tense last moments and defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6 (3) to defend her US Open title and win her fourth Grand Slam title.

“In this final I decided that I will control my emotions,” said Sabalenka. “I’m not going to let them take control of me, and it doesn’t matter what is going on in the game. If she breaks me back or if she is incredible tennis – it is of course a final and she will fight.”

With every new triumph it is difficult not to think of what the game of Sabalenka looked like when she arrived at the Tour. She started her career with every ball as hard as possible with hardly a thought in her head. Since then she has worked herself on one of the most consistent major tournaments of the past decade, apart from Serena Williams. Sabalenka has now reached the semi-final or better in 11 of her last 12 Grand Slam tournaments, the only deviation is a quarter-final defeat at the French open last year when she visibly struggled with food poisoning.

So few players in the history of sport have achieved these things and so the biggest demand around Sabalenka’s career is now how high she can rise on the list of all time. Her next challenge is to produce similar results at Wimbledon and the French Open. Although Sabalenka has shown herself as a player with an All-Court, and her impressive clay improvements were underlined by her run to the French Open final this year, she has all won hard courts; 18 of her 21 titles in general also came to hard courts.

At the age of 27, Sabalenka is on her physical peak and she continues to give herself title-winning opportunities with almost every Grand Slam she enters. If she keeps approaching them as she did in New York, with the humility to accept the talents of her opponents while she is quietly looking for solutions, there will be more victories.