The world number one female and the US Open champion in Open Aryna Sabalenka beat the American Jessica Pegula – and the crowd – to go to the final at Flushing Meadows.
In a revenge of last year’s final, Sabalenka and Pegula delivered fierce bases, a brilliant game and nerves in the dramatic semi-final before the Belarusian seeded prevails 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Sabalenka was easier, receiving a walking track in the semi-finals after Marketa Vondrousova had a knee injury in practice and withdrew before the match.
However, Sabalenka took a while to hit her stride on the Arthur Ashe stadium before taking the break, then consolidating himself for an advance of 4-2.
But then, supported by the support of the courtyard at home vocal, Pegula won four consecutive games to take the opening set 6-4.
The second set revised the momentum again, Sabalenka finding his feet and crushing 15 winners seven for Pegula, while she was fighting to level the match six games to three.
The final set saw the tension approaching a few notches, while Sabalenka obtained the early break in the opening match.
The crowd was volunteer from Pegula to find a way to come back to get the answering machine, but each time she created a chance of rupture, her opponent found a winner, generally painting the lines with incredibly precise and powerful bases.
Over time, Pegula has desperately tried to get the break, but after a last dramatic match, the champion crushed a last forehand in the area and took the match in 2 hours and 5 minutes.
When it ended on the third match point of Sabalenka – after two bad mistakes on her initial chances – she switched to her heels, spread her arms and shouted.
Sabalenka has moved away from becoming the first woman to win consecutive championships to Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams won three in 2012 to 2014.
This match was much closer than the right triumph for Sabalenka on Pegula 12 months ago which gave 27 years from Belarus her third title of Grand Chelem, All on Hard Courts.
Since then, Sabalenka has been the finalist of Madison Keys at Australian Open in January and Coco Gauff at the Open of France in June, then was eliminated in the semi-final of Wimbledon by Anisimova in July.
Anisimova leaves the bridge to descend Osaka
Amanda Anisimova eliminated the quadruple Grand Chelem champion, Naomi Osaka 6-7 (4), 7-6 (3), 6-3 in the American open semi-finals which ended almost a morning on Friday and presented two of the most powerful female tennis strikers.
Anisimova, seeded n ° 8, a 24 -year -old born in New Jersey and grew up in Florida, reached her second consecutive consecutive final by passing after 2 hours, 56 minutes.
“I was not sure to go beyond the finish line and I tried to dig deeply,” said Anisimova, who needed three match points to do the work. “It was a huge fight today.”
When it was over, Anisimova shouted: “Let’s go!” And appreciated the moment by kneeling in the field and leaning forward.
In Wimbledon in July, Anisimova experienced a breakthrough of the Grand Chelem, which goes to the match for the title before losing 6-0, 6-0 against Iga Swiatek.
But Anisimova recovered from this quickly enough and well enough to exceed Swiatek in two sets in the quarterfinals of the United States.
Now, Anisimova is the first opponent to beat Osaka – a former player No. 1 who was seeded No. 23 in New York – at the end of a Grand Colam tournament.
Before this defeat, Osaka had been a combination of 14-0 during her career in the large quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the finals, with two trophies each of the US Open and the Australian Open.
Asked what allowed her to win, Anisimova replied: “Oh, my God. I don’t know. I mean, Naomi plays incredible tennis. She’s back where she belongs.”
Well, Anisimova did it by forgetting the opening set and forgetting a deficit of 6-5 in the second.
Osaka was gallant in defeat in one of the tournament matches. (Getty Images: Sarah Stier ))
She also did it by not holding anything in the section, going – and by delivering – big strokes that generally land deeply in the courtyard and where she wanted.
It tends to be Osaka’s style too, but it was not entirely able to follow the end and took pills that a coach gave her after examining his left foot in the third set.
The two players frequently went to the corners of the court to watch their coaches and exchange words.
Osaka showed frustration after being broken in the second set by hitting a bullet in the blue courtyard, then throwing her racket towards the key line.
Osaka has pounded up to 191 km / h and produced 15 AS. The purest reverse in Anisimova’s sport and the forehand almost as good helped compile 50 winners, 18 more than Osaka.
“Sometimes I said to myself:” How do we make these blows? “” Said Anisimova. “But we were.”
It is true, the two were. But Anisimova did more.
ABC / AP
