Aryna Sabalenka Achieves Third Grand Slam Title of Her Career at 2024 U.S. Open
This was the second Grand Slam she has won during the 2024 season.
In a rematch of the Cincinnati Open final three weeks ago, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, 26, once again defeated Jessica Pegula of the United States, 30, to win the Women’s Singles title at the 2024 U.S. Open in New York City, New York (a Grand Slam event). The score in the final was 7-5 and 7-5 in favor of Sabalenka.
This was the fourth Grand Slam final Sabalenka has contested in her single’s career so far. She prevailed at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024. She reached the final at the U.S. Open in 2023 as well but lost to Coco Gauff of the United States. Meanwhile, this was the first Grand Slam final Pegula has reached in single’s competition. Notably, she beat World Number 1 player and 2022 U.S. Open champion Iga Świątek of Poland in the quarterfinals to compete in her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal.
In the head-to-head between Pegula and Sabalenka, the Belarusian led 5-2 in their prior meetings on the WTA Tour. Today’s victory was the third title Sabalenka has won on the 2024 WTA Tour and the 16th title of her career in single’s competition. Notably, this was the 14th title she has claimed from a hard court event. Moreover, she becomes the first player representing Belarus to win the Grand Slam title in Queens. And finally, she becomes the fifth player in the Open Era to win the Australian and U.S. Opens in the same calendar year - joining Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Angelique Kerber.
Heading into this tournament, Sabalenka was ranked as the Number 2 tennis player on the 2024 WTA Tour, while Pegula carried the Number 6 designation. By winning in New York, Sabalenka has received 2,000 points in the overall rankings. Meanwhile, Pegula has picked up 1,300 points. Regardless of the outcome, Sabalenka and Pegula were guaranteed to be the tour’s second and third ranked players following the final Grand Slam of the year.
While Gauff (No. 3) was the tournament’s defending champion, she lost this year against Emma Navarro of the United States (No. 12) during the fourth round. Meanwhile, Sabalenka and Pegula were the event’s second and sixth seeds, respectively.
Sabalenka arrived in the final after winning against qualifier Priscilla Hon of Australia (No. 203), Lucia Bronzetti of Italy (No. 76), 29th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia (No. 31), 33rd seed Elise Mertens of Belgium (No. 35), 7th seed Zheng Qinwen of China (No. 7), and 13th seed Navarro.
In the other half of the main draw, Pegula defeated Shelby Rogers of the United States (No. 356), Sofia Kenin of the United States (No. 54), Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain (No. 74), 18th seed Diana Shnaider of Russia (No. 18), top seed Świątek, and Karolína Muchová of the Czech Republic (No. 52).
The revised rankings for the 2024 WTA Tour will be officially released on Monday, September 9. The tour will then play two tournaments from September 9-15: the Guadalajara Open in Guadalajara, Mexico (a WTA 500 event) and the Jasmin Open in Monastir, Tunisia (a WTA 250 event). Both competitions will be played on hard courts.
Maria Sakkari of Greece (No. 9) is the reigning champion at the Guadalajara Open. She has opted not to compete anywhere this week. Meanwhile, Mertens is the two-time reigning champion at the Jasmin Open. She is looking to defend the title as the event’s top seed this year. She is scheduled to play against Anastasia Zakharova of Russia (No. 132) in the first round.