World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka stormed into the final of the US Open 2024 women’s singles after beating USA’s Emma Navarro. On Thursday, September 5 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, Sabalenka took an hour and 30 minutes to beat her American opponent 6-3, 7-6 (7-2). Sabalenka will also be playing in back-to-back finals at Flushing Meadows.
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Last year, Sabalenka lost to Coco Gauff in the final despite winning the first set. The Belarusian will be desperate to make amends and win the hard court major for the first time. Navarro, who was playing in her maiden Grand Slam final, fought hard before going down. Sabalenka also took a 2-1 lead against her American opponent on the head-to-head count.
The opening set turned out to be a cracker. Sabalenka stormed into the ascendancy with a 2-0 lead thanks to an early break of serve. But Navarro was equal to the task, earning the break back in the very next game. But Sabalenka brought forth all her experience to break Navarro’s serve for the second time and take the opening set.
Navarro makes Sabalenka sweat
Navarro kept Sabalenka on her toes and made it 2-2 in the second set before the latter took the upper hand once again with a break of serve. At 5-4, Sabalenka had a golden chance of serving out the set and the match, but Navarro rose from nowhere to break the Belarusian’s serve.
Sabalenka, somehow took the set into a tie-break where Navarro took an early 2-0 lead. But she brought forth all her experience to clear the deficit and take the lead. Sabalenka showed her class and won seven points in a row to close out the match.
Sabalenka made 34 unforced errors, but made up for them with 34 winners. Sabalenka is also the first woman since Serena Williams in 2018-19 to qualify for back-to-back finals in the US Open.
Sabalenka now awaits the winner of the other semi-final between USA’s Jessica Pegula and Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova.
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