Aryna Sabalenka bested Jessica Pegula in the 2024 US Open final to lift her third career Grand Slam singles title.
Sabalenka started her collection of Grand Slam titles back in 2019, and it was at the US Open where she won her first major, but that was in doubles. In 2021, she added her second doubles major at the Australian Open before finally winning her first in singles.
It came at the 2023 Australian Open, and this year, the Belarusian player defended her Australian Open crown. Entering the 2024 US Open, even though she was already a two-time major winner, both of her wins came in Melbourne, and she wanted to add a title from a different location to her Grand Slam collection.
New York seemed like a perfect place for it, given that she reached at least the semi-finals every single time in the past three years, including last year's final, in which she lost to home player Coco Gauff.
This year, she had to face an American in the final again, taking on Pegula, who has been sensational in recent weeks, winning the Canadian Open in Toronto and reaching the Cincinnati Open final.
In fact, only one player managed to beat her during the North American hard-court swing. Her final opponent at the US Open, Sabalenka. The former World No. 1 clearly knew how to beat Pegula, and she also knew how to do it on the US soil, having beaten her in that Cincinnati Open final.
But this final was another step higher. It wasn't a WTA 1000 final, it was a Grand Slam final. While for Pegula, it was her first, the Belarusian player played already in her fourth, clearly having experience on her side despite being four years younger than her opponent.
That experience showed early on. Although it was the American who broke her opponent's serve first, Sabalenka quickly broke back and added another break of serve to lead 5-2 in the opening set of the match.
But with crowd getting more and more involved, the World No. 2's task became increasingly more difficult. Pegula knew that if she wanted to win, the crowd would need to help her as well, and they certainly did their part in the first set, as did she, coming back from 2-5 to make it 5-5.
The 30-year-old even had a break point to go into a 6-5 lead, but she couldn't use that, and as she would learn only a couple of minutes later, it would prove quite a bit costly.
Sabalenka heroically held her serve and put a lot of pressure on her opponent's serve. As a result, Pegula had to face a total of five set points when trying to stay in the first set.
Despite saving the first four, saving the fifth one was too much for the two-time Canadian Open champion, who lost the first set 5-7 after an hour of play.
After the first set, the momentum was clearly in one player's favor, while the other needed to find all mental power to remain in the match, not physically, but mentally.
At first, it seemed that Pegula wouldn't be able to do that. She quickly lost her serve and only after a few minutes of play, she was facing an uphill battle in the second set, having a 0-3 deficit.
But this match was proof of Pegula's giant resilience. Against all odds, she recovered from that 0-3 deficit and made it 3-3 to keep herself in the match, like she did in the first set.
Not only that, she added yet another break to lead 4-3 in the second set, only minutes after it seemed like the trophy ceremony was already getting ready for Sabalenka.
Leading 40-30 in the eighth game, the American player made a rarely-seen mistake, which could have cost her the game. After missing her first serve, Pegula stepped up to serve again, missing again committing a double fault.
But turning to her box immediately after, the American couldn't believe what had happened, explaining that she thought it was her first serve and not her second. Sabalenka got into the game with the score 40-40, but Pegula handled her nerves to win the game and lead 5-3.
The Belarusian player was then able to hold her serve to make it 4-5 and force the home crowd favorite to serve out the second set of the match if she wanted to win it and send the match into the decider.
But like her opponent at times, Pegula felt the pressure. On the other hand, Sabalenka played a great game, and after losing a 3-0 lead, she was able to neutralize the set again, making it 5-5.
Sabalenka had the momentum clearly on her side, and she easily held her serve, and on top of that, created match point chances on her opponent's serve. She managed to use that to win the match 7-5, 7-5, and lift her third Grand Slam title, her first at the US Open.
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