Aryna Sabalenka Wins Australian Open 2024 Women’s Singles Title With Straight Sets Win Over Qinwen Zheng

Defending Champion Aryna Sabalenka started the match with a bang, breaking Zheng’s opening serve to take a 2-0 lead in the first set. But Zheng came back and threatened to break Sabalenka’s serve. Belarusian used her strong first serve to win the game. Banking on serves, both payers tried to rope in the games as quickly as possible but with the help of breaks, Sabalenka won the first set 6-3 in just over half an hour. Continuing her dominance in the match, Sabalenka broke Zheng twice in the second set to win the match 6-3, 6-2 in the end. Australian Open 2024: Diede De Groot Wins Women's Singles Wheelchair Title, Clinches Her Sixth AO Slam.

Repeating the pressure tactics, Sabalenka broke Zheng’s opening serve in the second set to take a 1-0 game lead. In the following games, Zheng had more double faults - helping Sabalenka to mount more pressure on the Chinese star. The 25-year-old Sabalenka went on to win the fifth game of the second set breaking Zheng’s third serve of the set. Sabalenka holding her serves gave little chance of comeback to Zheng. Serving for the match, Sabalenka had to overcome three 'deuces' to win the set 6-2, claiming her second Australian Open in the process. Sabalenka had five championship points on the serve.

With this feat, Sabalenka became only the second Belarusian player after Victoria Azarenka to win back-to-back Australian Open titles. Azarenka did so in 2012 and 2013. Looking at Sabalenka’s current form,  she could join an elite club of Tennis stars like Monica Seles, Steffi Graff, Martina Hingis, Evonne Goolagong and Margaret Court who won the Australian Open three times in a row in the Open Era.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 27, 2024 03:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).