Aryna Sabalenka Australian Open celebrates
Aryna Sabalenka has been hailed for her “exceptional” Australian Open campaign after she became only the ninth player in Open Era history to win back-to-back titles.
World No 2 Sabalenka won her second Grand Slam on Saturday as she brushed aside first-time finalist Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena in a dominant display.
The 25-year-old broke as early as the second game of the match and she never relinquished the advantage and two-set victory means she has followed in the footsteps of Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka to successfully defend their titles Down Under.
Sabalenka is also only the fifth player since 2000 to win the Australian Open without dropping a set with Ashleigh Barty (2022), Maria Sharapova (2008), Serena Williams (2007) and Lindsay Davenport (2000) the others to pull off the feat.
Incredibly, Sabalenka dropped only 31 games en route to the title – just one behind Barty’s 30 two years ago – and 1987 Wimbledon winner Pat Cash likened her to tennis great Serena Williams.
During the BBC5 Live Sport coverage Cash said: “She is unstoppable when she goes like that, a bit like Serena” as he praised the Belarusian for her flawless performance.
“That is as present as it gets. Sabalenka came out aggressive. She knew she had the pace to upset Zheng, for a first time in a Grand Slam final.
“Zheng hadn’t seen anything like this considering she hadn’t played a top 50 player all the way through. Sabalenka was absolutely flawless.”
He added: “We know how good she is, but that was an exceptional tournament. She’s played some tough players and dealt with them easily.”
Sabalenka was left speechless following her win, but she did manage to come up with a “weird” post-match presentation speech.
“It’s been an amazing two weeks lifting this trophy one more time, and I’m really speechless. As always my speech is going to be weird, It’s not my superpower but I’ll try my best,” she said.
“Team – wow. You see guys, I put a little bit of pressure on them in the Brisbane final and we did a little bit better in this one. Thank you so much for being by my side no matter what. Without you I wouldn’t be able to achieve so much in my sport.
“Without me you wouldn’t be that good as well so let’s accept that fact (smiling).”
She also paid tribute to Zheng.
“I want to congratulate Qinwen on an incredible couple of weeks in Australia,” she said. “I know this feeling. It’s really tough to lose in the finals but you are such an incredible player and such a young girl, you are going to be in many more finals and you’re going to get it. Congrats to you and your team on an amazing job.”