Aryna Sabalenka beat Naomi Osaka in an entertaining match to win the 2025 MGM Rewards Slam.
It's the time of the season when tennis moves to the United States again. Every major season ends with the US Open as the last Grand Slam, and tennis then returns to the country for the joint ATP and WTA 1000 tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.
The 2025 Indian Wells Open starts on March 5th, and the pool of the favorites will be large again. Two of them will certainly be former champion Naomi Osaka and former finalist Aryna Sabalenka.
Both have a very similar resume. They both reached the WTA World No. 1 rank in their careers, they have both won two Australian Open trophies, and they have both triumphed at the US Open. The only difference is that Osaka won in New York twice, while the Belarusian has only one triumph at Flushing Meadows so far.
On and off the court, they are also two of the most exciting players on the WTA Tour, so it's not a surprise that they were the two players chosen by the organizers for the 2025 MGM Rewards Slam.
The exhibition event, which was held at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, was supposed to be a multi-day event, but the latest developments meant that only the women's part of the exhibition took place. The men's part of the exhibition was postponed because of multiple withdrawals.
With one part of the exhibition being postponed, the two WTA players made sure to deliver a show for fans in Las Vegas. The match was played on the hard court, which they both prefer, so nothing could hold them back from hitting the ball with full power, as they both like to.
Early on, both held their serve easily. That was true only until the fourth game of the opening set when Osaka was broken for the first time. It was clear that Sabalenka tried using this match also to try some things she has been working on, which is why she also missed quite a lot.
That's why she immediately lost the one-break advantage, and at 3-3 in the first set, it was game on again. Both players held their serves again, but Sabalenka was the better player in the closing stages of the set.
She held her serve to lead 5-4, and on a set point, she asked one of the spectators to help her. The fan was able to win a point against Osaka (who obviously didn't try her best), securing the first set for Sabalenka, 6-4.
Fans in Las Vegas even saw Osaka doing push-ups after losing the first game of the second set as part of a lost bet. Like in the first set, Sabalenka broke to lead 3-1, but the Japanese player broke right back and later made it 3-3.
But Osaka was the better player in the closing stages again. The World No. 1 player broke her opponent's serve again to win the match 6-4, 6-4, securing the 2025 MGM Rewards Slam, which she also celebrated.
