Aryna Sabalenka is now a four-time Grand Slam champion. It sounds powerful and it feels deserved. For a player who had dominated the rankings all season, the story would have felt unfinished without a major title. But the world number one delivered again, defending the trophy she claimed a year ago in New York. Against the American contenders she looked untouchable: first she stopped Jessica Pegula, then she dismantled Amanda Anisimova in style.
Her team mattered too. Alongside Anton Dubrov, Andrei Vasilevski and Jason Stacy, who kept his trademark tiger shaved into his head on finals day, came Max Mirnyi. The Olympic champion, who not long ago had overcome surgery to remove a malignant tumor, joined forces with Sabalenka in the summer. His focus on serve-and-volley patterns, combined with a calm and disciplined presence, brought exactly the kind of balance Sabalenka needed. The impact was immediate.
The final against Anisimova was quality from start to finish. Their head-to-head record (3–6) suggested danger. Only a handful of players on tour can claim more than six wins over Sabalenka, names like Swiatek and Gauff. Anisimova, too, had shown resilience. After taking two bagels from Swiatek in the Wimbledon final, she came back strong to beat the Pole in the US Open quarterfinals. But even against that version of Amanda, Sabalenka handled the pressure, sometimes even playing as the second number on court.
She won rallies where she had to defend and turned them around with counterattacks. Over the past few years her movement and fitness have leveled up, making her one of the toughest players to grind down. Five, ten, fifteen shots in a rally — she stays in and refuses to give away anything. In the final she never cracked, flipping tense moments in her favor. The ultimate proof is her streak of 19 consecutive tie-break wins, the kind of record that crowns her the queen of the 13th game.
To the trophy came a record prize check of five million dollars. Sabalenka moved up to third place on the all-time prize money list, behind only the Williams sisters.
Her dominance on hard courts is no longer in question. Now the challenges lie on clay and grass. At Roland Garros she came one step short, at Wimbledon two. But the hunger for new titles remains. Which means the chance for a career Grand Slam is still alive. New York showed the key: when Sabalenka controls her emotions she is unstoppable. Everything else she already has.
