Aryna Sabalenka has successfully defended her US Open crown after defeating Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova in straight sets on Saturday night.
The world No1 beat the hometown favourite 6-3, 7-6 (3) to claim back-to-back victories in US Open women’s singles finals.
At the last attempt, this marks Sabalenka’s first Grand Slam win of the year after losing to Madison Keys and Coco Gauff in the Australian and French Open finals respectively.
As for Anisimova, she can take heart from a much improved Grand Slam final performance. The American eighth seed was thrashed 6-0 6-0 in under an hour by Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon earlier this summer, but avoided consecutive whitewashes.
Anisimova broke Sabalenka when she was serving for the championship then held her serve, which ultimately forced a second set tie-break.
The Belarusian stormed into a 4-1 lead and kept her cool in a near-flawless tiebreak to eventually see off the challenge of Anisimova on her third championship point.
Sabalenka, who also lost to Anisimova in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, was in the strange position of being by a distance the best player in the world but without a slam trophy in 2025.
She put that right in New York, showing herself and the wider tennis world that she can rise to the occasion when it really matters to quell a fightback from Anisimova and claim a 6-3 7-6 (3) victory.
Sabalenka is the first woman since Serena Williams won three successive US Open titles between 2012 and 2014 to successfully defend it, while she has increased her tally of slams to four, having now added two New York triumphs to her pair of Australian Open trophies.
Additional reporting by PA.
