One year ago, Aryna Sabalenka finally solved the puzzle of how to win a grand slam; now she has worked out how to defend one too.
With a bold but controlled performance that underlined her growing ease on the sport’s biggest stages, Sabalenka overwhelmed Qinwen Zheng of China 6-3, 6-2 to defend the Australian Open crown she won last year against Elena Rybakina.
Across an hour and 16 minutes of explosive serving and blazing baseline play, Sabalenka went from a player who had reached the semi-finals or better at each of the past six slams, to the winner of two of the past three hard-court majors – an epithet with a far more pleasing ring.
Following in the footsteps of Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty, the 25-year-old also became only the fifth woman this century to claim the title without dropping a set, and the first to retain it since Victoria Azarenka, her fellow Belarusian, in 2013. The winning formula in her grasp, she is joining the ranks of some of the great serial winners.
Zheng too had hoped to emulate a celebrated compatriot, but the 21-year-old’s hopes of marking the 10th anniversary of Li Na’s famous Australian Open triumph with another Chinese success withered in the face of Sabalenka’s corrosive power. It will take a while to sink in, but more glory surely awaits the world No 2.
“I couldn’t even imagine myself, first of all, wining one grand slam – secondly, winning it twice in a row, that’s just crazy,” said Sabalenka. “I’m still trying to process it.”
In fairness, there is much to digest, for Sabalenka’s journey to this point has been nothing if not eventful. At one point, it seemed posterity might remember her as the finest player never to make it beyond the fourth round of a major. Barely had she disproved that theory by reaching the 2021 Wimbledon and US Open semi-finals, than her serve, the bedrock of her powerful game, deserted her.
Never slow to smile, Sabalenka promptly branded herself “the queen of double faults”. Yet there was a more serious and even useful dimension to that difficult period. Sabalenka’s travails made her mind stronger; once known for having all the shots but lacking the mental toughness, she became a player able to harness her mental strength to buttress her failing game and control her emotional volatility.
“Of course there was really a moment where I really didn’t believe that I’m going to win it one day, especially those periods when I was serving double faults and couldn’t fix my serve,” said Sabalenka. “There was a lot of up and downs. But, you know, I just couldn’t quit.”
Sabalenka’s evolution came to a head in glorious fashion with last year’s triumph in Melbourne, and her emphatic defence of the title feels equally significant. She remained focused as Iga Swiatek, Rybakina and a host of other big names fell like skittles in the opposite half of the draw. She gained a cathartic semi-final win over Coco Gauff, who reeled her in from a set down in last year’s US Open final. And, at the first time of asking, she handled the pressure of defending a grand slam title with a composure that would probably make her unrecognisable to her former self. Now she is on the path to becoming a multiple grand slam winner.
“It’s been in my mind that I didn’t want to be that player who won it and then disappeared,” said Sabalenka. “I just wanted to show that I’m able to be consistently there and I’m able to win another one. I really hope [for] more, more than two right now – but for me [it] was really important.
“Definitely that year when I was struggling a lot helped me a lot to understand that, even if my serve is not working, I’m able to fight for it, and I have a good return.
“Right now, when I’m serving a little bit better than that year, definitely I feel more controlled on my serve. Even if I’m down in the score in my serve, or even if someone breaks me, I’m not getting crazy like I used to, and I have this belief that no matter what happens, I’m able to fight for it. I have a lot of weapons, not only my serve.”
All those qualities were on show against Zheng, who found herself a break down in just five minutes despite doing very little wrong. Having opened with three mighty first serves to three different corners, Sabalenka held to love and then began ripping returns and nailing groundstrokes with gleeful abandon. It earned her eight of the first nine points.
Over the course of the match, Zheng won almost three-quarters of her first-serve points and tallied six aces to the Belarusian’s three. As those statistics would suggest, she has a fine first delivery, and in her opening service game she made all but one of her six first serves. So the fact that she was broken regardless did not bode well, especially on an evening when she would land just 53% of her first serves.
Always outwardly serene, Zheng must have felt increasingly shellshocked as points and games began flying by in a blizzard of big hitting from Sabalenka. The highest-rated player Zheng had faced previously at the tournament was Katie Boulter, the British world No 54; this was a vertiginous ascent up the rankings ladder.
“If you talk about nerves, I was fine,” said Zheng. “I think the difference is Aryna, she has much more, you know, she takes away the rhythm compared to other players.”
There were two small windows of opportunity for the Chinese player. The first came in the third game, where she had Sabalenka on the ropes at 0-40 on her serve. The second came in a passage of about 10 minutes or so at the end of the first set, when she saved three set points on her own serve and a fourth on the Belarusian’s. On each occasion, Sabalenka stood strong, first rallying her way through five straight points to hold for 3-0, then finding a penetrating first serve to seal the set. When Zheng hit three double faults to drop serve again at the start of the second set, the die was cast.
“I think the difference was the beginning, I couldn’t hold the service game,” said Zheng. “Then later on, when I got the chance to break her from 0-40 up, I’m not able to make it. That little moment makes the match so different.
“If you play against Sabalenka [at] this level, if you don’t take this chance, the match goes away really fast. She’s a really aggressive player; if you let a chance go, it will happen like today.”
It is likely to happen again soon enough. Having harnessed her game and her emotions, Sabalenka can look to the season ahead with greater belief than ever, confident that she has all the tools she needs to seize the opportunities that eluded her last year. Karolina Muchova memorably recovered from match point down to defeat her in the French Open semi-finals, while Sabalenka squandered a one-set lead against Ons Jabeur at the same stage of Wimbledon – but it is hard to imagine those mistakes being repeated.
“I felt like I got super emotional and I just let those semi-finals get away,” said Sabalenka. “But I definitely think that if I’m going to keep working like I’m working right now, and if we’re going to keep building what we are building right now, I’m definitely able to do the same on the clay and on the grass.”
Why not? She’s a multiple grand slam winner now.