Sabalenka triumphs at the US Open, a tiger named Aryna. Pegula surrenders

The joke of a colleague, whose name I will not mention for the sake of my country, reaches me via WhatsApp between the first and second set: “Yes, it’s all Aryna’s own bag”. The witty colleague means that against Sabalenka there’s no chance for anyone on the semi-fast surface of the Arthur Ashe Stadium, even if the Belarusian is having an off day like today. Jessica Pegulaexcellent player but not a champion at all Iga Swiatekmakes a great impression in front of the friendly audience at Flushing Meadows and cannot reproach herself for anything. Seeing and hearing her during the awards ceremony, he is aware of it.

The final of the women’s singles in New York is not a solo by the number 2 WTA player, who has already lifted the Australian Open cup this year: rather, it seems like an example of reactivity at the moment of maximum difficulty. In the first set Aryna does and undoes like Penelope, she is immediately broken, recovers, takes the lead at 5-2, then lets the American reach her, risks the crash and only a burst of energy saves her at 7-5.

The script is the same in the second set. Sabalenka takes off, gets the chance to make it 4-0, misses it and, who knows how, finds herself in a position to find Jessica who overtakes her and seems capable of outclassing her. Once again, however, put on the ropes (4-5, Pegula’s serve), she roars and reacts. With a flurry of shots she takes three consecutive games, the match (7-5) and the title.

Despite the two slams won this season – today far from Melbourne, where she also triumphed last year – for Aryna 2024 will remain the year in which she had to combine great successes and the tragedy of the death of her former partner. Konstantin Koltsovformer hockey player for the Pittsburgh Penguins, then coach of the Belarusian national team, with whom she had been in a relationship since 2021. On March 18, while he was in Miami to follow Aryna in the Wta 1000 – the two had recently broken up – , Koltsov threw himself from the balcony of a hotel in Bal Harbour, at least according to the police version. In the absence of evidence of the involvement of other people, the reason for his death was classified as “apparent suicide”. Aryna, very tough, still played the tournament, exiting in the second round after eliminating Paula Badosa in the first. He simply skipped press conferences “to protect himself emotionally,” he later explained.

Aryna, born in 1998, grew up in Minsk in a family of athletes. Her father Sergey interrupted his career as an ice hockey player due to injuries sustained in a car accident. He was the one who sent her to a tennis school when she was six years old, after discovering that there were courts not far from home. Sergey unfortunately died in 2019, at the age of 43, due to fulminant meningitis. Aryna has a younger sister, Tonechka, while her mother, Yulia, has never wanted to appear publicly. She studied at the State University of the capital following an academic path linked to sports. Her “historical” coaches are two. With the first, the former Russian player Dmitry Tursunovthe relationship ended abruptly in 2019 due to the difficulties in working peacefully despite the good results achieved together. Since then he has collaborated with Anton Dubrovwho was previously part of her team as a sparring partner. Under his guidance, Aryna has reached her current level of quality.

I believe that, with this capital final of the US Open, Pegula has reached the zenith of her career. At 30 years old, having turned 30 in February, after five slam quarterfinals and (until Thursday, when she eliminated Emma Navarro) not even one semifinal, after six WTA titles including three 1000 tournaments, after the best ranking as number 3 in the world, official since Monday, today’s performance could satisfy her to the point of convincing her that the time has come to manage her own business activities and support her father in taking care of the formidable family fortune. Or maybe not, she will try again to demonstrate that you can be a billionaire and work ten hours a day on a court, in the gym, at the physiotherapist to get where no one would have imagined. She will only find out by living.