“Knowing that there is someone chasing me or I have a target on my back right now, I love it,” she said in Paris a few weeks ago. “I take it as a challenge. Every time I go out there, I feel like, OK, let’s go. Let’s see who is ready for the pressure moments.”

Such self-belief has been evident throughout Sabalenka’s reign at the top of the rankings. Since reclaiming top spot from Iga Swiatek last October, following an eight-week run at No 1 in late 2023, the 27-year-old has been a model of consistency, winning WTA 1000 titles in Miami and Madrid and reaching the finals of the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Stuttgart and Roland Garros. 

In the process, she has made a mockery of the notion that it is harder to hang on to top spot than to reach it. As Swiatek has struggled to hit the high notes with the regularity that kept her at No 1 for 125 weeks, Sabalenka has cemented her status. She goes into Wimbledon almost 4,000 ahead of second-placed Coco Gauff and, having reached the semi-finals in her past two appearances at the All England Club, a firm title favourite in the eyes of the oddsmakers.

But while Sabalenka’s setbacks have been few, they have been significant. Defeat to Madison Keys in Melbourne denied her a third straight Australian Open title, while an error-strewn loss to Gauff in Paris earlier this month leaves her still searching for a first grand slam title on a surface other than hard courts. 

Events in the French capital also laid bare the mental fault-lines in Sabalenka’s game. She has made good the damage caused by her ungracious remarks in the aftermath of that match, when she blamed defeat on the windy conditions, her own poor play and Gauff’s mishits, but the emotional volatility that sparked that outburst, a quality she has worked so hard to tame, cannot be solved simply with contrite remarks and social media snippets.     

“Usually after losing, I’m quite good,” said Sabalenka, who has apologised to Gauff publicly and privately, and last week performed a TikTok routine with the American after practising with her on Centre Court, apparently confirming the hatchet has been buried between the pair.

”I can accept losing, of course. I usually never struggle. It’s just this time it was super tough for me, I don’t know why. I wanted it badly and I just was upset that I couldn’t make it. This time, emotions took over me. 

“But on court, in the finals or semi-finals sometimes, I can get over-emotional and I would like to improve that, I would like to stay to the same mentality I have during the tournament. 

“I believe I get over-emotional at the last stages of the tournaments because I have this desire of winning. Sometimes it gets over me and I can lose control over my emotions. I would love to control that at the last stages of the tournament.”

It is a rare chink in the armour of a player whose withering power and growing variety seem tailor-made for Wimbledon, and it points to a deeper challenge for the Belarusian. For all Sabalenka’s insistence that she is comfortable with the external pressures that go with the No 1 ranking, the tiger within has been harder to tame. 

The weight of that burden was evident in her nervous start to the Australian Open final, and it surfaced again in Paris, where she became increasingly frustrated by her inability to capitalise on a blistering start. At a point in her career where even her closest rivals often struggle to touch her, Sabalenka may just be her own worst enemy.

The irony is glaringly apparent – even to the Belarusian, who has acknowledged the disparity between her on- and off-court persona. Always a bubbly presence when not in the heat of battle, Sabalenka arrived in SW19 fresh from a surprise defeat to former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in Berlin, but with a broad smile on her face. 

She has had plenty of fun since, including practices with Jannik Sinner, her male counterpart at the top of the rankings, and seven-time champion Novak Djokovic, who spent more than half an hour afterwards in deep conversation with her.

There was further merriment when Djokovic gatecrashed the final moments of Sabalenka’s  pre-tournament press conference.

“What do you think about hitting with me, how do you see my level?” she enquired jokingly.

“I think you have the potential, you’re a really talented player, you have nice strokes, good technique,” Djokovic replied without missing a beat. “Can I be honest? You’re lacking intensity on the court, you don’t have enough intensity. It’s too flat.”

The Serb’s irony occasioned much laughter, yet there was also truth in his jest. For all the comic mileage to be found in casting the impassioned Sabalenka as too laid back, there is a point at which  desire suffocates, where intensity spills over into something more destructive. Sabalenka has identified the problem; her ability to find a solution is likely to shape the outcome of her challenge for a first Wimbledon title.

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In a match-up that drew a ripple of mischievous amusement as it was announced at the conclusion of Friday morning’s draw, Alcaraz will begin his quest for a third successive crown against Fabio Fognini, the gifted but unpredictable Italian whose languid shot-making belies a notoriously fiery disposition.

Fognini has hinted that this is likely to be his final year on the tour and, while it would be stretching it to suggest an upset could be on the cards, the 38-year-old will undoubtedly relish the prospect of facing a big name on Centre Court in what may be his last match at Wimbledon. The pair have met twice previously, both times on red clay in Rio de Janeiro, with Alcaraz winning on each occasion. 

The Spanish second seed is projected to face Holger Rune of Denmark in the quarter-finals, with either Alexander Zverev, the German world No 3, or Taylor Fritz, the fifth seed, barring his path to another final. 

Krejcikova, meanwhile, was drawn against Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, the 20-year-old left-hander whose breakout run to the semi-finals of the Miami Open earlier this year included victories over Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek. The 74th-ranked Eala, who has made encouraging progress on grass ahead of her main draw debut at Wimbledon, will cross swords with Australian teenager Maya Joint for the Eastbourne Open title on Saturday.

It represents a tough start for Krejcikova, who has barely played since the turn of the year due to a back injury and withdrew from her scheduled Eastbourne quarter-final against Varvara Gracheva this week with a thigh problem, raising further doubts about her fitness. The 29-year-old Czech, currently ranked 17th, defeated Jasmine Paolini in last year’s Wimbledon final to claim her second grand slam title following her French Open victory of four years ago. 

Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, will open her challenge against Carson Branstine, a 24-year-old Canadian qualifier. The 27-year-old Belarusian could meet former champion Marketa Vondrousova, who defeated her in straights sets in the semi-finals of the Berlin Open last weekend, in round three. Sabalenka is projected to face Madison Keys, the Australian Open champion, in the last eight, with either Paolini or Qinwen Zheng, the Olympic champion and fifth seed, potentially awaiting in the semi-finals.

In the lower half of the draw, second seed Coco Gauff will begin her campaign against the 42nd-ranked Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine and could play former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka in round two. 

Gauff, 21, is expected to face Swiatek in the last eight – although the Pole, who opens against Polina Kudermetova, may first have to get past either Danielle Collins or Marta Kostyuk in the third round, followed by Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion. The American, who won her second major title at the French Open earlier this month, is seeded to meet fellow countrywoman Jessica Pegula, who starts against Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy, in the last four.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, top seed Jannik Sinner opens against Luca Nardi and is expected to meet another Italian opponent, Lorenzo Musetti, in the last eight. Sinner could then be in line for a reunion with Novak Djokovic, who defeated him in the semi-finals two years ago. First, though, Djokovic may need to see off Britain’s Jack Draper, the fourth seed, who gave the seven-time champion an opening-round scare on his main draw debut in 2021. 

With his thunderous southpaw serve and heavy forehand, Draper would seem to have a game ideally suited to grass. But the 23-year-old, who will be carrying the hopes of the home nation despite never previously going beyond round two in three visits to SW19, has been handed an onerous draw. Following an opening-round assignment against Sebastián Báez, the world No 38, Draper could meet former finalist Marin Cilic, followed by Alexander Bublik – who defeated him at the French Open earlier this month and won the Halle Open on grass last weekend – and the rising Czech teenager Jakub Mensik.

Emma Raducanu, who aggravated a lingering back injury during her recent quarter-final run at Queen’s Club, has been handed a similarly difficult path. The former US Open champion, who reached the fourth for the second time last year, begins against 17-year-old wildcard Mimi Xu, a former British national junior champion. Assuming she survives unscathed, Raducanu will face either the resurgent Vondrousova, who won the Berlin Open title last week, or the American 32nd seed McCartney Kessler – followed, in all likelihood, by Sabalenka.

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On an afternoon when a trophy the Belarusian world No 1 coveted slipped through her fingers, it felt like a metaphor.

Two hours earlier, Coco Gauff had been little more than a bystander at her own execution. A devastating early onslaught from Sabalenka had propelled her to a 4-1, 40-0 first-set lead, and she looked poised to take a significant stride towards a career grand slam by adding a maiden Roland Garros title to her US and Australian Open victories. 

Instead, in an echo of her win over Sabalenka at Flushing Meadows in 2023, Gauff rose from the canvas to mount an improbable comeback, hustling, chasing and counterpunching her way to a 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4 triumph and a second grand slam title. At 21, she becomes only the second American woman this century to triumph in Paris, following in the footsteps of Serena Williams, who was a year younger when she won the first of her three titles in 2002.

It was not a day for the aesthetes – the conditions saw to that – and Gauff later acknowledged the utilitarian nature of her performance. But winning ugly is still winning and, for a player once coached by Brad Gilbert, who famously authored a book on that very subject, the end more than justified the means. 

While Sabalenka fretted and fussed about the wind and her own inconsistency, Gauff simply played her tennis when she could, and scrapped, scurried and made balls whenever her opponent’s sporadic periods of excellence did not allow her that luxury. It was enough. 

“I’m just really happy with the fight that I managed,” said Gauff. “Today wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done and that’s all that matters.”

Just how deeply it mattered became clear after two hours and 38 minutes, when a final Sabalenka backhand flew wide, signalling the conclusion of a scrappy, emotionally fraught contest that swung back and forth as violently as the windblown flags above Court Philippe Chatrier. Gauff fell to the court on her back, her body convulsed with emotion, her mouth agape, before rising to embrace Sabalenka. 

Making her way to the opposite end, she then sank to her knees on the clay, making a heart gesture as she looked up at her parents, Candi and Corey, before joining them in the stands. Perhaps the most touching moment came when her father, his eyes welling, tenderly wiped the clay from her clothes and face in preparation for the trophy ceremony.

There were tears too back on court, where Sabalenka cut a distraught figure as she sat in her chair trying to make sense of it all. For a fortnight, she had looked every inch the world’s best player. She cruised into the semi-finals without dropping a set, dispatching the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng along the way, and then did what no one else has been able to do since 2021 by defeating Iga Swiatek, a four-time champion on the Parisian clay. But after her early dominance, she slowly began to implode. 

If the 70 unforced errors with which Sabalenka finished the afternoon were alarming, even more so was the manner in which she unravelled mentally in the face of an obdurate opponent and a troublesome breeze that, as Gauff later explained, was hard to hit through from one end but mae the ball fly from the other. When Sabalenka won her first major title at the Australian Open in 2023, it seemed she had finally tamed her combustible nature. But she has now lost three of the six major finals she has contested, and here she reverted to old habits, her features all too often torn with anguish as she bellowed at her team and railed against the elements. 

To her credit, she gathered herself sufficiently to make a fight of the decider, recovering from a break down to square proceedings at 3-3 and continuing to give everything even when another error-strewn service game put Gauff back in the driving seat. It made for a tense finale, but it was too little, too late. 

Sabalenka ripped an audacious forehand return winner to save a first championship point, but was taken by surprise as Gauff attempted to convert a second, the wind holding up the American’s looped forehand as it looked to be sailing long. As the ball nosedived sharply on to the baseline, Sabalenka could only prod back a weak reply; her fate was sealed. If her frustration was understandable, particularly given that Gauff had been helped on her way by a mishit forehand earlier in the same game, her reluctance to give proper credit to her opponent was less so.

“Honestly, guys, this one hurts so much, especially after such a tough two weeks, playing great tennis, and in these terrible conditions, showing such terrible tennis in the final, that really hurts,” Sabalenka said after fighting back tears.

It was an honest admission of how she felt in the moment, but also a notable departure from the usual practice of congratulating the champion and her team first. Sabalenka went on to congratulate Gauff as the better player on the day, but later doubled down on her initial analysis, placing the blame for her defeat on the wind and her own poor play. She also emphasised the American’s good fortune. 

“Conditions were terrible and she simply was better in these conditions than me,” said Sabalenka. “I think it was the worst final ever played.

“Honestly, sometimes it felt like she was hitting the ball from the frame and somehow, magically, the ball lands in the court and you’re kind of on the back foot. It felt like a joke, like someone from above was just staying there laughing and, you know, ‘Like, let’s see if you can handle this’ – and I couldn’t today.

“I think she won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes.”

If it seemed a slightly churlish assessment, the 27-year-old’s portrayal of herself as her own worst enemy was accurate. It was Flushing Meadows 2023 all over again, with Sabalenka frequently on top in the baseline exchanges only to be undone by Gauff’s defensive resilience and her own inconsistency. 

The ultimate outcome was barely imaginable after the first five games. Sabalenka set the tone with an emphatic opening service game that included a second serve ace, a pair of teasing drop shots and the same irresistible combination of depth and power off the ground that had toppled Swiatek. 

But as the initial onslaught subsided and her errors became more frequent, the variety vanished from Sabalenka’s game. It flickered back to life briefly at the business end of the first set, the Belarusian reeling off four straight points from 3-5 down in the tiebreak with a blend of power and finesse. But by that point, Gauff had started to believe. Win or lose, she was ready to fight.

“After I lost the first set, I told myself, like, I’ll just give it my all and, you know, if I lose this match then at least I can say I gave it all out there, and I’ll go home and I’ll see my boyfriend,” said Gauff. “I’ve been telling myself that every day. 

“Obviously I’d love to be here and I’d love to win, but sometimes you realise, you know, if you lose, whatever – well, not whatever, I hate losing – but you know what I mean, you go home and you reset. 

“So today when I lost that first set I tried not to put too much pressure on the match and I think it worked – I was able to loosen up after that and play a little bit freer.”

As a double grand slam champion, Gauff can look to the future with a little more freedom too. From the moment she defeated Venus Williams at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old, she has lived with the pressure of suffocating expectation; six years on, she can rest secure in the knowledge that, even at this early stage in her career, that youthful promise has been fulfilled.

The post Gauff thwarts Sabalenka to win French Open title appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

But Iga Swiatek was dethroned in humbling fashion at Roland Garros on Thursday, Aryna Sabalenka ending the Polish defending champion’s remarkable 26-match winning run on the Parisian clay with a 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-0 victory as she advanced to the French Open final for the first time. 

Throughout her reign of terror in the French capital, Swiatek has often swept through sets without dropping a single game in a set – the dreaded “bagel”, as it is known in tennis parlance.

Jokes about “Iga’s Bakery” have been plentiful, but for once it was the 24-year-old who had too much on her plate, Sabalenka producing near-perfect tennis to dominate the decider so thoroughly that she dropped just six points and, remarkably, made no unforced errors.

“Six-love, what can I say?” said Sabalenka. “It couldn’t be more perfect than that.” 

Indeed not. It was a brutal exhibition of power tennis from the Belarusian world No 1, who began the afternoon in commanding vein, blasting her way into an early 4-1 lead, and ended it equally emphatically after being drawn into a more protracted battle. Through to a third straight grand slam final, a feat last achieved by Serena Williams in 2016, Sabalenka will face second seed Coco Gauff on Saturday with a fourth major title – and first away from the hard courts she favours – firmly in her sights.

“It’s going to mean everything to me and my team, because I have to say that almost my whole life, I’ve been told the clay court is not my thing, and then I didn’t have any confidence,” said Sabalenka. 

“In the past, I don’t know how many years, we’ve been able to develop my game so much, so I feel really comfortable on this surface and actually enjoy playing on clay.”

It didn’t always look like Sabalenka was having fun, particularly when she was unable to convert points for a 5-1 lead. Determined to take the contest by the scruff of the neck, she achieved that ambition early on with a combination of irresistible serving and deep, bludgeoned returns that landed at Swiatek’s feet almost before she had completed her service motion. On a drizzly day in Paris, the closed roof on Court Philippe Chatrier seemed to play into the 27-year-old’s hands, allowing her free rein to take on her shots unencumbered by the swirling wind outside.

But as Swiatek chiselled her way back into contention, moving inside the baseline, showing greater aggression on the return, and belatedly landing her first serve with greater frequency, Sabalenka made plain her frustration, muttering to herself furiously and casting dark looks towards her team. Swiatek levelled at 4-4 before a late exchange of breaks brought up a tiebreak. The Belarusian bossed the shootout, but now she knew she was in a match.

Though down a set, Swiatek could draw encouragement from the knowledge that she had navigated a similar challenge two rounds earlier against Elena Rybakina, who also set a daunting early pace and used her power to rush the defending champion into error.

It is widely acknowledged that Swiatek is never more vulnerable than when she is denied time, and in that respect Sabalenka, whose success is measured in the milliseconds it takes for her blunderbuss strokes to work their destructive magic, represents the ultimate challenge. But there is a reason Swiatek went into the contest with just two losses from 42 previous appearances at Roland Garros, and in the second set she showed her mettle.

Returning with greater depth and penetration, Swiatek secured an early break with a pair of rifled backhand winners, only to relinquish the advantage immediately with a poor service game.

But when Sabalenka replied in kind, producing an error-strewn game to concede a second break, Swiatek was not about to repeat her mistake. She instead consolidated the advantage with panache, producing a first ace of the afternoon, an exquisite piece of touch on the half-volley, and an extraordinary, lunging drop shot. In the minutes that followed, Swiatek produced her finest tennis of the fortnight and, arguably, her entire, chequered season. 

Without a title since defeating Jasmine Paolini in last year’s final, the four-time champion has slipped from first to fifth in the rankings, and will fall to seventh next week. In recent months, she has suffered losses to Jelena Ostapenko, Mirra Andreeva, Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins, respectively ending title defences in Qatar, Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome.

But as she became bolder in the baseline exchanges, producing some sharp touches at the net and improving markedly on serve – where she won 71% of points behind her first delivery, up from 43% in the first set, and more than doubled her success rate behind the second – there were glimpses of the Swiatek of old. It made Sabalenka’s superiority down the stretch all the more sobering.

“She still served really well, I feel like I served the same and she read my serve much better, so I probably won less points on the return,” said Swiatek. “I think I lost my intensity a bit and she just played pretty strong, as in the first set, but I didn’t react to that well and just couldn’t push back.

“The pace from her was super fast, she for sure, especially at the beginning of the match, played as hard as possible and pretty risky, so it was just hard to get into any rally. [In the second set] I was able to do that, so more things happened, it wasn’t just like serve and one shot, or return and one shot, I could build the rally.  

“In the third set I feel like we came back to what happened in the first, and she for sure used her chances and I didnt really keep up what I was doing in the second set.”

There were no such difficulties for Gauff, who ended the extraordinary run of French wildcard Loïs Boisson, the world No 361. The Frenchwoman, who carried the hopes of a nation after defeating three seeded players en route to the semi-finals including Jessica Pegula, the world No 3, and the sixth-ranked Mirra Andreeva, but struggled to reproduce that form as she slumped to a 6-1, 6-2 defeat. Gauff will now attempt to claim the title that eluded her three years ago, when she was routed by Swiatek in the final. 

“My first final here, I was super nervous, and I kind of wrote myself off before the match even happened,” said Gauff, 21, who defeated Sabalenka to win the 2023 US Open. “Obviously, here, I have a lot more confidence just from playing a grand slam final before and doing well in one.”

Whether that will be enough to stop Sabalenka is another matter.

“It was a big match, and it felt like a final, but I know that the job is not done yet,” said Sabalenka. “I have to go out there on Saturday, and I have to fight and I have to bring my best tennis, and I have to work for that title. 

“I’m ready; I’m ready to go out, and I’m ready to fight. And I’m ready to do everything it’s going to take to get the win.”

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Not this time; not here in Arthur Ashe Stadium; not again.

So when Jessica Pegula courageously fought back to level the first set after trailing 5-2, Sabalenka did not let her mind drift back to last September, when she was unable to capitalise on a similarly auspicious start against Coco Gauff. She did not dwell on the succession of heartbreaks she has suffered at Flushing Meadows, where she has made the semi-finals or better in each of the past three years only to be undone by Leylah Fernandez, Iga Swiatek and Gauff.

This time, when she held two break points early in the second set, just as she had done against Gauff last year, Sabalenka drove home the advantage. Even when Pegula, New York-born and willed on by a febrile crowd, rose from the canvas a second time to reel off five straight games and bring an absorbing contest to the brink of a decider, the Belarusian world No 2 did not blench. Her resolve was rewarded with a 7-5, 7-5 victory and a third grand slam trophy to sit alongside her two Australian Open crowns. 

“I thought that I would be thinking a lot about previous years here, because I had a lot of tough lessons here at the US Open, very difficult ones I would say, especially last year,” said Sabalenka after marking her 100th grand slam match with a repeat of her straight-sets victory over Pegula in Cincinnati. “But today I just kept reminding myself that this is the US Open final, of course she’s going to fight really hard for it and it’s not going to be easy, and I have to work really hard to get it. 

“In those tough moments, I was just trying to stay strong and remind myself that I’ve been through a lot and I’m strong enough to hold under this pressure. So I’m actually really glad that I didn’t have any [flashbacks to] last year.

“It’s a very special place here, the US Open, and I had a lot of tough losses in the past. I was always hoping that one day I’ll be able to hold this beautiful trophy, it’s been always my dream. That’s why it’s very special because, no matter what, every time I was coming back stronger and I was learning. I never gave up on this dream, and that means a lot.”

At the age of 26, Sabalenka is beginning to carve a niche alongside some of the greatest names in the sport’s history. With her latest victory, she joins Angelique Kerber as the second woman this century to win the Australian and US Open in the same season. Since 1988, meanwhile, when both events were held on hard courts for the first time, only Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis have completed the rarefied double. The only other female players in the open era to do it are Margaret Court, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Sabalenka’s father Sergey, who died in 2019, would have been proud.

“After I lost my father it’s always been my goal to put our family name in the history of tennis,” said Sabalenka. “Every time I see my name on that trophy, I’m so proud of myself and proud of my family that they never gave up on my dream and that they were doing everything they could to keep me going. I had this opportunity in life, so it really means a lot.”

Pegula too has dreamed of such moments. Before this week, the 30-year-old had lost all six of the grand slam quarter-finals she had contested. Having finally broken that duck with an inspired win over perennial nemesis Iga Swiatek, the sixth seed gave everything in pursuit of a first title at this level. Buoyed by a raucous reception as she emerged on to Ashe for the biggest match of her career, Pegula immediately made clear her determination to play the match on the front foot. She responded to an early ace from Sabalenka with an untouchable serve of her own as she levelled at a game apiece, then moved inside the baseline to drill a huge forehand return at the Belarusian’s feet and claim the first break.

Pegula’s aggression carried her within a point of consolidating her advantage before Sabalenka decided she had seen enough. A blazing forehand winner pulled the score back to deuce. Then, showcasing the variety she has added to her game over the past year, the Belarusian tempted Pegula into error with a floated defensive slice. A blazing return secured the break back, and from there Sabalenka began to dominate. She bossed the baseline exchanges. She made successful forays to the net. She slammed down serves at speeds of up to 119mph and won four straight games. It seemed a rout might be on the cards.

Then, the worm turned. Pegula played a strong service game. Errors began creeping into Sabalenka’s play. As the Belarusian served for the set, a double fault brought up a break point for Pegula. Sabalenka saved it with a booming forehand, but then made two straight errors off the same wing. Pegula, quietly confident but never cocksure, did her best to orchestrate the crowd, waving her arms slightly awkwardly. It did the trick. With an explosion of patriotic fervour still ringing in her ears, she played another fine service game to level at 5-5. Remarkably, she had won 14 of the previous 18 points. For Sabalenka, still nursing the scars of all those past disappointments, it must have felt like groundhog day. 

When another double fault gifted Pegula a break point that would have left her serving for the set, Sabalenka was left beating at the ground in fury. She averted the danger with a courageous backhand winner that kissed the back edge of the baseline, but she was flirting with disaster. 

Pegula was now returning with depth and conviction, so much so that Sabalenka attempted a 111mph second serve. Inevitably, it resulted in another double fault. But the world No 2 kept swinging, and after eight tense minutes she finally held. Pegula saved four set points in the next game, the initiative swinging back and forth until a double fault from the American handed Sabalenka a fifth. Now she offered another reminder of her expanded repertoire, sealing the set with a deft backhand that was part drop shot, part short, angled slice.

“It’s really good to have these options in your pocket,” said Sabalenka. “Sometimes you don’t feel your best on the baseline, and you can just go for a slice, or a drop shot, or come to the net. I’ve always worked on this variation on the court, and I’m really glad that that I’m brave enough to use these tools in those key moments.”

They were needed again when Pegula, having recovered from 3-0 down in the second set, served to force a decider at 5-4. Sabalenka began the game with a wonderful display of balletic athleticism, rising to angle away a high backhand volley with her back to the court. She ended it in signature style, slamming a forehand winner on to the sideline to break. She would not be caught again. 

“I have to go for it, that’s the only way it works for me,” smiled Sabalenka. 

As this victory proved, that is no longer altogether true. When Pegula sent a final forehand long, signalling the end of her resistance, Sabalenka sunk to her knees and then collapsed on her back, her body shaking with emotion. After a consolatory hug for the American, she made her way into the stands, half-crying, half-laughing, before celebrating wildly with her support team. It is unlikely to be the last time we witness such scenes.

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The 26-year-old Belarusian completed an outstanding week’s work in Cincinnati with a straight-sets victory over Jessica Pegula, snapping the sixth-seeded American’s nine-match winning run with a performance of withering power and unwavering self-belief. With a week to go until the US Open, a first WTA 1000 title on hard courts in four years marks a timely resurgence for the Australian Open champion, who had not won a title since securing her second grand slam crown at Melbourne Park in January.

Sabalenka, who lost to Mirra Andreeva in the French Open quarter-finals and went on to miss Wimbledon and the Olympics with a shoulder injury, has suffered unexpected losses to Marie Bouzkova and Amanda Anisimova since returning to the fray earlier this month. But her determination to recapture her best form has been evident in Cincinnati, where she has revelled in the quick, slick playing conditions, emulating Vera Zvonareva and Ashleigh Barty by becoming only the third woman to win the title without dropping a set.

That confidence-boosting run included an emphatic semi-final win over Iga Swiatek – only her fourth in a dozen meetings with the Polish world No 1 – and she had far too much in reserve for Pegula, whose contrastingly arduous route to the final included three-set victories over Karolina Muchova, Leylah Fernandez and Paula Badosa.

“I would say that I’m really playing great tennis,” said Sabalenka after a 6-3, 7-5 victory that will encourage her to believe she can take the final step at Flushing Meadows, where she was beaten by Coco Gauff in last year’s final. “Probably not the best tennis I can play, but I’m definitely getting there, and with every match I play I’m feeling better and better. Hopefully at the US Open I can keep building the level.”

If Sabalenka’s form in Ohio has invited comparisons with this year’s title run at Melbourne Park, where she likewise triumphed without dropping a set, then the mental strength she demonstrated in handling her sole moment of crisis against Pegula harked back to her 2023 Australian Open win, when she definitively laid to rest doubts about her big-match temperament.

As Sabalenka stepped up to serve for the championship at 5-4 in the second set, she had dropped the princely sum of just four points on serve in the entire match. But a flurry of forehand errors from the Belarusian threw Pegula an unlikely lifeline, and suddenly there was a ripple of excitement among the previously subdued home crowd. The parallel with Sabalenka’s win over Swiatek, where she needed 10 match points to get over the line, was inescapable. This time, though, there would be no late drama: Sabalenka’s forehand remained shaky, but her will held firm.

“I couldn’t be happier with the level, but I was pushed a lot by my opponent,” said Sabalenka. “I think I just played really great tennis and I was focused. I wouldn’t allow those negative emotions [to] come into my head, and I was trying to stay really calm on the court and in control.

“I think that’s why, even though people were breaking my serve [late in matches], I was able to stay focused and break them back.”

After a wretched summer, both players will head to New York with renewed optimism. While Sabalenka reclaims the No 2 ranking she temporarily relinquished to Gauff after Roland Garros, Pegula can reflect with satisfaction on a surge that has brought a third WTA 1000 crown in Toronto as well as a fifth final at this level. It has been a welcome return to form for the 30-year-old, who missed the French Open with injury and suffered second-round losses at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the Olympics.

Rosie Casals and Serena Williams are the only other women to have made the Canadian Open and Cincinnati finals in the same year, and it was Williams whom Pegula referenced in her on-court speech afterwards, telling Sabalenka – who hit 10 aces and won 91% of her first-serve points – “It felt like Serena today, with the way you were serving; I may have wanted Serena instead of Aryna.”

“She’s tough when she’s playing [so well], especially on these fast courts,” Pegula later elaborated. “It’s hard to draw out the points and get her moving when she’s playing first-strike tennis really well and not making a lot of errors either. So kudos to her for this whole week, she’s played some really incredible tennis.

“But I’m really proud of myself for the last couple of weeks, for the level I’ve been able to display, playing a lot of matches, and I think proving to myself that I can win a lot of matches in a row and be able to handle a lot of different challenges with the conditions and different cities and courts.”

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The biggest casualty came early. Shortly after cutting short a morning practice session, Aryna Sabalenka, seeded third and twice a semi-finalist at the All England Club, withdrew from the tournament with a shoulder injury. The 26-year-old subsequently took to social media to say she was “heartbroken” to have to pull out of her scheduled first-round match against Emina Bektas of the United States.

“I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not co-operating,” wrote Sabalenka. “I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things much worse.”

Sabalenka, who also withdrew from her quarter-final match at last month’s Berlin Open with shoulder pain, spoke openly of her physical struggles before the tournament, yet that did little to mitigate the sense of shock surrounding her withdrawal. With the likes of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray all but clambering off the operating table and straight on to the practice courts in recent weeks, we have become inured to top players defying medical probability. But not every physical issue can be surmounted, and Sabalenka’s injury – to the teres major, a small but important muscle that runs under the shoulder joint and controls abduction and internal rotation – has caused her pain on her service, the bedrock of her game. Her frustration has been magnified by the fact that she can perform other movements without pain.

“The most annoying thing is that I can do anything, I can practise, I can hit my groundstrokes, but I’m struggling with serving, so that’s really annoying,” Sabalenka said at the weekend. 

“You don’t feel like you are injured, you know. If you give me some weights, I’m going to go and lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I’m going to go through pain.”

Sabalenka’s absence will be keenly felt, particularly with four of the world’s top six in the upper half of the draw. Coco Gauff, seeded second, was originally expected to face the two-time Australian Open championin the semi-finals. The American has never been beyond the fourth round, but made a winning start against Caroline Dolehide, dismissing her compatriot 6-2, 6-1 to erase the memory of last year’s first-round exit to Sofia Kenin. Gauff is not getting ahead of herself following Sabalenka’s withdrawal.

“I wouldn’t have probably played her till the semis,” said Gauff. “At that point, it’s just like, ‘This is the semi-finals of a grand slam.’ No matter who you play, it’s going to be a tough person to play. 

“But it is unfortunate that she had to pull out. She’s always a contender in every slam and [on] every surface. She’s such a competitor.”

Sabalenka was swiftly followed out of the tournament by another Belarusian nursing a shoulder injury. Victoria Azarenka, seeded 16th and also a two-time semi-finalist in SW19, had been scheduled to face Sloane Stephens in a battle of former major winners, but was likewise forced to withdraw. Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, despatched Azarenka’s replacement, French lucky loser Elsa Jacquemot, 6-3, 6-3.

That left Karolina Pliskova, a finalist in 2021, as the only remaining player in the bottom half of the draw with experience of the latter stages. However, the 32-year-old Czech was beaten 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 by Diana Shnaider, the recently crowned Bad Homburg champion. If that deepened an already palpable sense of opportunity, the door was pushed further ajar when Lulu Sun, a 23-old-qualifier ranked 123 in the world, defeated Qinwen Zheng, the Chinese world No 8. The New Zealander defeated Zheng, who was seeded to meet Sabalenka in the quarter-finals in a repeat of this year’s Australian Open final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Among those hoping to capitalise on Zheng’s loss will be Emma Raducanu, the former US Open champion, who was beneficiary of yet another late withdrawal. Originally expected to face Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 22nd seed, Raducanu instead found herself up against Mexico’s Renata Zarzua, a lucky loser ranked 98 in the world. The British wild card, ranked 135, prevailed 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 and will next face Elise Mertens of Belgium, the world’s best doubles player, who came from behind to see off Japan’s Nao Hibino 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Should Raducanu advance to the third round, she could meet Maria Sakkari, the Greek ninth seed, who navigated the opening round of a major for only the second time in six attempts with a 6-3, 6-1 win over McCartney Kessler of the United States. 

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Swiatek, a quarter-finalist last time out, will get her campaign underway against former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who defeated Coco Gauff in the opening round 12 months ago. It will be a repeat of their first-round meeting in Melbourne earlier this year, which Swiatek won in two hard-fought sets. The 23-year-old also defeated Kenin to win her first title at Roland Garros in 2020.

Swiatek could face Germany’s Angelique Kerber, whose three grand slam victories include the 2018 Wimbledon title, in round three, ahead of a projected meeting with Jelena Ostapenko, another former major winner. The 13th-seeded Latvian has won all four of their previous meetings – although, if she is to get a crack at a fifth, Ostapenko will first need to negotiate an intriguing opener against Alja Tomljanovic, the Australian wild card who accused her of faking injury during a feisty third-round win in 2021.

Swiatek is projected to face Marketa Vondousova, the Czech defending champion, in the last eight. Vondrousova will play Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain in the first round and could go up against Danielle Collins, the 11th-seeded American who is competing at Wimbledon for the final time, in the last 16. 

If the seedings hold, Swiatek will play former champion Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals. The 25-year-old from Kazakhstan opens against Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and could face Ons Jabeur, whom she defeated to win the title two summers ago, for the third year in a row in the last 16. The Tunisian, seeded 10th, will begin her bid to reach a third straight final against Moyuka Uchijima of Japan. 

In the bottom half, third seed Aryna Sabalenka will open her campaign against Emina Bektas of the United States. The Belarusian, who practised with Jabeur on Centre Court shortly after the draw was made on Friday morning, is expected to face Qinwen Zheng in the last eight, in what would be a repeat of this year’s Australian Open final. 

Propping up the draw is Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, who will start her first major as the world No 2 against fellow American Caroline Dolehide. Should the 20-year-old advance to the last eight for the first time, she could face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, the eighth seed and French Open finalist, who reached the Eastbourne semi-finals this week.

Domestic interest will centre on Emma Raducanu, who opens against Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 22nd seed, and Katie Boulter, the British No 1, who faces a potentially tricky start against former semi-finalist Tatjana Maria.

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On an afternoon of major upsets at the French Open, Andreeva, 17, fought back from a set down to claim the biggest win of her career against Aryna Sabalenka, becoming the youngest women’s grand slam semi-finalist since Martina Hingis in 1997. Sabalenka, the second seed and reigning Australian Open champion, struggled physically from the outset and on several occasions looked close to throwing in the towel.

It was a desperate stroke of misfortune for the 26-year-old Belarusian, particularly after Elena Rybakina, the fourth seed, was earlier beaten by Paolini in straight sets. With Iga Swiatek, the world No 1 and defending champion, already through to face Coco Gauff in the top half of the draw, the expectation was that the top four seeds would reach the semi-finals in Paris for the first time since 1992. But a bold and brilliant performance from Paolini put a dent in the notion of a women’s big four which Andreeva, to her immense credit, hammered home.

“I tried to stay in the game, stay focused, not to wait for her mistakes, to try to finish everything by myself,” said Andreeva following her 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4 win.

“If we look back, I wouldn’t expect myself playing [in the] semi-finals, because that was just kind of a dream for me in the beginning of the tournament.”

Andreeva’s dream was Sabalenka’s nightmare. A pair of early breaks could not disguise the Belarusian’s discomfort on serve and sluggish movement and, as she fell behind against an opponent she had dismissed comfortably in each of their previous two meetings, she gestured agitatedly to her support team. After seven games, a doctor arrived on the scene, pills were administered, and Sabalenka somehow summoned the strength to recover from 3-5 down and see out the set.  

But Andreeva held firm, maintaining her concentration despite the weight of the occasion and the distracting nature of Sabalenka’s predicament, and having levelled the contest she showed admirable composure to recover from a break down in the decider. Serving to stay in the tournament, Sabalenka fought off a first match point with a courageous forehand winner, but Andreeva would not be denied. The teenager ripped a backhand winner down the line to bring up a second opportunity, and this time she converted it with an inspired defensive lob. 

In Paolini, she will face another opponent enjoying her finest run at a major. The Italian, who started the year ranked 29th, had never been beyond the second round at this level before reaching the last 16 of the Australian Open in January. Two months later, she was scheduled to face Rybakina in the Dubai quarter-finals only for the former Wimbledon champion to withdraw with illness. Paolini went on to win the WTA 1000 event, defeating Anna Kalinskaya in the final, and her growing belief that she can compete at the highest level will be reinforced when she breaks into the top 10 for the first time next week. 

A near-flawless first set gave Paolini the platform for a 6-2, 4-6. 6-4 victory over Rybakina, the Italian dropping just one point on serve while threatening the world No 4’s delivery throughout. It has been a difficult few weeks for Rybakina, who was forced to abandon her title defence in Rome because of sickness, and has since struggled with sleeping problems and media controversy. She has been winning in Paris even without playing her best tennis, and put herself in a position to do so again after shrugging off an error-strewn start to force a decider, but a poor service game at 4-4 handed Paolini the initiative, and the Italian served out for a famous win.

“I think I started to play better, with more consistency, last year,” said Paolini. “Match by match, I felt more convinced that I can play at a higher level. But it was a process, it’s not like I switched something [on], it was a process. 

“Now, I step on court and I say to myself that I have a chance to win the match. Before, sometimes when I was playing against the top players, I was like ‘OK, I need a miracle to win this match,’ so I was already losing the match before even playing.”

Now the shoe will be on the other foot: seeded 12th and by far the more experienced player, Paolini will go into Thursday’s semi-final as the favourite. Then again, as she and Andreeva proved, that doesn’t always count for much.

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After weeks of uncertainty over Nadal’s prospects of competing at the tournament, there was an audible murmur of disbelief at the draw ceremony as Zverev, the fourth seed, was confirmed as the 14-time champion’s first opponent. 

It was clear the unseeded Spaniard would face a top-eight player from the moment his name emerged at the top of the second quarter of the draw, but Zverev represents one of the toughest assignments he could have landed. The contest will be a rematch of their ill-fated semi-final of two years ago, which ended with the German Olympic champion rupturing ankle ligaments late in the second set after more than three hours of mesmerising play.

Much has changed in the interim. Nadal is now languishing at 276 in the rankings after struggling to overcome abdominal and hip problems that have brought him to the brink of retirement. Zverev, meanwhile, fresh from winning his biggest title in almost three years in Rome last week, appears to have put his injury woes firmly behind him. 

To judge from his recent comments about Nadal’s French Open prospects, however, the German is unlikely to be lulled into a false sense of security by his opponent’s relatively modest record of five wins from eight outings in Barcelona, Madrid and Rome.

“Rafa is going to play a lot better than he did in Madrid and Rome,” said Zverev at the Italian Open last week. “I’m certain about that.”

Many will balk at the possibility of the German bringing the curtain down on Nadal’s Roland Garros career, given that the 27-year-old’s trial for alleged domestic abuse begins in the Tiergarten district court in Berlin on 31 May. Zverev, who is not required to attend the proceedings, has consistently denied the charges.

Nadal, whose proud record of having never lost two consecutive clay-court matches will be on the line after his defeat to Hubert Hurkacz in Rome, is likely to take a measured view of the situation, much as he did when he was drawn in the same half as Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in 2021. 

“That’s part of the game,” Nadal said then. “That’s how the ranking works. I mean, there is not one sport that is more fair than tennis on that. 

“There is a ranking. The seedings are made with the ranking that you had during the last year. So that’s how it is.”

A possible source of consolation for the Spaniard is that, should he somehow find a way past Zverev, his path through the top half would begin to look a fraction less daunting. David Goffin, ranked 115, is a possible second-round opponent, and from there he could expect to face Tallon Griekspoor, the 26th seed, followed by a pair of former quarter-finalists in Holger Rune and Daniil Medvedev. The odds remain stacked against a deep run, but Nadal has performed too many miracles in the 16th arrondissement to regard Zverev’s progress as a foregone conclusion. 

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic, the defending champion and top seed, will open his bid for a record 25th grand slam title against French wildcard Pierre-Hugues Herbert. In the lower half of the draw, Jannik Sinner, seeded second, faces Christopher Eubanks of the United States, while Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 champion, plays former finalist Andy Murray in a battle of three-time grand slam champions.

In the women’s draw, Iga Swiatek will begin her title defence against a qualifier ahead of a potential second-round meeting with Naomi Osaka, who opens against Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti. The Polish world No 1, vying for a fourth title on the Parisian clay, has landed in the opposite half of the draw to Elena Rybakina, the fourth seed, who has won four of their six previous encounters, most recently in the semi-finals of last month’s Stuttgart Open. 

“I love this place, so I’m always excited to come back,” said Swiatek at the draw ceremony. “It feels like home.”

If the seedings hold, Swiatek will play Coco Gauff, the US Open champion, in the last four, in what would be a repeat of the 2022 final. First, though, the 22-year-old would potentially need to navigate a last-16 meeting with Barbora Krejcikova, the champion of three summers ago, followed by a quarter-final showdown with either Marketa Vondrousova, a finalist in 2019, or Danielle Collins, who is playing some of the finest tennis of her career in her final season on tour. Gauff will open against a qualifier, while Rybakina plays Greet Minnen of Belgium.

Aryna Sabalenka props up the lower half of the draw. The second seed will open her challenge for a second straight major, following her successful title defence at the Australian Open in January, against Erika Andreeva, a 19-year-old Russian ranked 101. The Belarusian, a semi-finalist last year, is expected to face Maria Sakkari, the Greek sixth seed, before disputing a place in the final with Rybakina.

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