Aryna Sabalenka dominates Jessica Pegula to cruise to Miami Open title
Aryna Sabalenka further cemented her status as the best player in the world as she closed out a dominant fortnight with an imperious performance to win the Miami Open for the first time in her career with a 7-5, 6-2 win over the fourth seed Jessica Pegula.
With another formidable victory, Sabalenka has now won 19 WTA titles, including eight at WTA 1000 level alongside her three grand slam titles. A reflection of her consistency, Sabalenka is the third WTA No 1 in history to reach the finals of the Australian Open, Indian Wells and the Miami Open in the same year.
'I'm speechless,' said Sabalenka. 'The last couple of finals were really tough, tight and close ones for me. Going into this one I was so focused on myself, I was super focused and I was playing point by point. Now it feels super special. I'm just speechless right now and super happy with the title, first one in Miami.'
Over the past year, Sabalenka and Pegula have met in three of the five most significant hard court finals after their 2024 meetings at the US Open and Cincinnati Open. In both of those previous meetings, Sabalenka overpowered Pegula with her superior weight of shot despite considerable fight from the American.
Sabalenka's dominant performances en-route to the final further positioned her as the clear favourite. She faced two other top 10 opponents in the sixth seed Jasmine Paolini and the ninth seed Zheng Qinwen, plus the defending champion Danielle Collins, yet she did not drop a set in her six matches.
After rain had delayed the start of play by an hour, the final began with a series of breaks as the initiative swung sharply between both players early on. It was Sabalenka who settled down in the second half of the opening set, first finding her rhythm on serve and then perfectly timing her best return game of the match. Up 6-5, Sabalenka picked Pegula's serve apart, taking the set by breaking to love. 'I'm super happy that I was there,' she said. 'I was fighting no matter what.'
As has been the case in most of their recent encounters, Pegula simply does not possess the variety of shot, defensive skills or comparable weight of shot to put this focused, determined version of Sabalenka under sustained pressure and she had no answer as the world No 1 took control of the second set.
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At the same time, Sabalenka also showed off the added dimensions to her own game, also mixing up the trajectory of her shots and using her topspin serve to push Pegula back. Once a one-dimensional player determined to attack every last ball, Sabalenka has evolved into an intelligent, tenacious superstar who has become so difficult to beat. She marched through the second set to seal yet another exceptional victory.
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