Aryna Sabalenka beats Jessica Pegula to win elusive US Open

NEW YORK — Shortly after winning her third Grand Slam singles title and her first at the US Open, Aryna Sabalenka fell to the ground with her hands over her face.

She defeated American Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 on Saturday evening in front of a fanatical and star-studded crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

It was a very different scene from a year ago, when Sabalenka blew a one-set lead over Coco Gauff, another American, in the US Open final to take runner-up. And even the two years before that, when she lost in the semifinals in 2021 and 2022.

Second-seeded Sabalenka, a 26-year-old Belarusian player, couldn’t resist mentioning her past as she addressed the crowd at the awards ceremony.

“Oh, my God. I’m speechless right now,” Sabalenka said. “So many times I thought I was so close to winning a US Open title. It was a dream of mine. Finally I got this beautiful trophy. It means a lot.”

Sabalenka played her 100th major match of her career, becoming the sixth woman to win the US Open after losing in the final the year before. It was also the first time since Serena Williams in 2012.

She also rose to fourth among active WTA players for most Grand Slam singles titles, behind only Venus Williams (7), Iga Swiatek (5) and Naomi Osaka (4).

Sabalenka had to dig deep and raise her game during the match, with both players taking control at various points. In the opening set, Sabalenka raced to a 5-2 lead before Pegula found her rhythm and rattled off the next three games.

But as the set reached 5-5, it was Sabalenka who found her momentum, winning the next five games to take the set and take a 3-0 lead into the second.

But Pegula, playing in her first major final, wasn’t done fighting yet. The No. 6 went on a five-game run of her own, and a deciding set seemed all but assured. But Pegula couldn’t quite finish the job. She served at 5-4 and let Sabalenka level the set with a break.

“I was preparing for the third set. (Thinking) at least something like, ‘You’ll be sure of your serve in the third set,’ and then I held my serve. I put so much pressure on her (in) that service game at 5-4, and I’m very happy that I could break her back,” Sabalenka said.

From there it was Sabalenka all the way. After an hour and 53 minutes, and with 16 of the last 23 points, the trophy was finally Sabalenka’s.

“She was able to find some good players, but she couldn’t sustain it,” Pegula said. “She played some great players at some great times.”

It was a season of highs and lows for Sabalenka. After winning her second consecutive Australian Open in January, personal tragedy struck when her former partner, Konstantin Koltsov, a retired professional hockey player, died in what was ruled a suicide just days before the Miami Open. Sabalenka said in a statement that she was “heartbroken” by his death.

On court, she reached the finals of the clay-court tournaments in Madrid and Rome, but suffered a stomach virus at the French Open and lost in the quarterfinals. She was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon with a shoulder injury. While many of her peers competed in the Olympic singles tournament in Paris, Sabalenka—who could have competed as a neutral athlete, as her native Belarus was excluded due to the ongoing war in Ukraine—withdrew, saying she wanted to prioritize her health during an already grueling season.

While players like Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz admit to suffering from fatigue and a lack of energy after Olympic medal runs and multiple surface changes, Sabalenka has suffered no such problems. She arrived in New York after winning the 1,000-level title in Cincinnati in her last tune-up event and now has a 16-2 record on the hard courts this summer.

During an interview with ESPN after the final on Saturday, she said the competitive break had been crucial to her recent success.

“I (kept) pushing myself and I think I was pushing myself emotionally and physically and it was really important to take a step back, just recharge,” Sabalenka said. “Just that little moment with myself really helped me be more fresh and more ready and I felt like I was hungrier than ever this summer.”

Sabalenka said it was the difficult moments on and off the court that helped her get through the key points on Saturday.

“I tried to stay strong and remind myself that I’ve been through a lot and I’m strong enough to withstand this pressure,” said Sabalenka, the fifth woman to win the Australian Open and US Open in the same year since 1988, when the Australian major switched to hard courts.

While the 30-year-old Pegula admitted she was disappointed with the final result, she said she was “relatively happy” that she continued to create chances for herself in the match and was proud of her performance throughout the tournament.

After reaching six previous quarterfinals, she advanced to her first semifinal on Wednesday with a stunning 6-2, 6-4 victory over Światek, the world No. 1. About 24 hours later, she recovered from her first-set loss 6-1 to beat Karolina Muchova in three sets to reach the final.

She was aiming to become the second-oldest first-time women’s major champion in the Open era and the first woman since 2006 to beat the top two players at a single US Open. But it wasn’t to be.

Shortly after she left the court, she was not yet able to fully appreciate what she had achieved, but she knew that she would probably realize it in the future.

“Everybody’s like, ‘Congratulations! Great tournament!’ and I’m like, ‘Eh, whatever,'” Pegula said. “I think once I calm down a little bit, I’ll be a little more appreciative and see all that.”

Pegula, who won the Canadian Open last month and reached the final in Cincinnati, will move up to No. 3 when the new WTA rankings are released on Monday, equaling her previous career high. Sabalenka remains at No. 2.

ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this report.