Bill Simons
New York
Everybody knows.
Buffalo is a fine town with plenty of good neighbors. But if you come from that city, you have to learn to live in the shadows. It’s not so much that the Bills blow Super Bowls in the most maddening of ways. More to the point, that little rival city they call the Big Apple has Broadway, Wall Street and Fifth Avenue. It’s the city that never sleeps. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. If you make it in Buffalo, you know how to shovel snow.
And Jessica Pegula, Buffalo’s beloved baselining basher, knows that all too well. While, during her career, women named Serena, Venus, Naomi and Coco reveled in red carpet glory, she quietly battled her way up the ranks, gradually lifting her game. Then, lo and behold, on Thursday, after six futile efforts, she actually got beyond a Slam quarterfinal – Hallelujah!
Buffalo is tough and resilient. But so is the Belarusian we know so well.
Off court, Aryna Sabalenka giggles. She teases and offers grins that light up locker rooms and arenas. She’s the queen of silly. But on court, Sabalenka imposes. She’s big and powerful. She looks like an enforcer. Her shoulders are broad Serena-like mounds. Her fasten-your-seat-belt power tends to turn matches into demolition derbies – or not. In the past, she could implode quickly, and seem so vulnerable in so many ways.
Coming into today’s final, the pride of Buffalo and the bounding Belarusian were the hottest players of the season. Jessica won Toronto – Aryna took Cincy. A while ago, both were No. 1 in doubles. Both had won 15 hardcourt matches this summer and each had dropped only one set at the Open.
Today, as F1 champ Lewis Hamilton looked on, Pegula hit the back of the baseline and raced to an early 2-1 lead. But fan Tina Fey and 24,000 others knew that Sabalenka was unlikely to fade. Aryna’s days of painful implosions are behind her. Watching from a suite, Steph Curry was impressed.
Sabalenka’s once wretched serve is now the best in the game, and her blistering groundies are dominating. She grabbed the first set by the throat. Yes, when she was serving for the set, she blinked. Pegula got back on serve and Aryna failed to convert any of her first four set points.
But she gathered herself and used her relatively newfound finesse and a clever drop shot to win the first set in a captivating hour of play, 7-5.
The WTA’s foremost heavyweight was punching out a superb middleweight. Plus she had history on her side: 27 of the last 29 women who claimed the first set won the title.
Then again, Sabalenka has a dreary history of falling short. Last year, Coco Gauff came from a set down to deny her.
But, no problem, the Belarusian raced to a 3-0 second set lead. Yet Pegula’s backers were quick to recall that before she won the semis, Jessie had been down a set and a break against Karolina Muchova. But the Czech is ranked No. 52, while Sabalenka is the best hardcourt player in the world.
For the third straight time, a Slam final featured a diminutive player. Jasmine Paolini is just 5′ 4″, and in the French and Wimbledon finals, she fell to more powerful foes. Pegula is just 5′ 7″. But she’s no pusher. Her deep flat shots often sting. Still, at her core, it is her consistency and her ability to turn defense into offense that are her strengths.
More than anything, Pegula is one heck of a blue-collar billionaire, who battles with a quiet but ferocious calm. She picked up her return game, unleashed wicked backhands and covered the court like a gazelle. She upped her aggression, hit deep yet was subtle, and won five games in a row to go up 5-3 in the second set.
But Sabalenka boldly unleashed her forehand and took the racket out of Jessica’s hands. Aryna hit 40 winners to Pegula’s 17. Plus, she ruled the net, scoring 18 points.
And when she blasted yet another wicked forehand, Aryna became the first woman since Angie Kerber in 2016 to win the Aussie Open and the US Open in the same season.
But what was Aryna thinking when she fell flat on her back? Later she told Inside Tennis, “I’d definitely say this was one of the best moments. So many things were going through my mind. The first one was, all those tough losses in the past, and I was so proud of myself and my team that no matter what, we were able to come back stronger.
And now finally we are having this beautiful trophy. I don’t know how to describe that feeling. You’re crying, you’re laughing, you feel all these emotions at the same time. That’s the best feeling. I really wish everyone experience that.”
Sabalenka is just 26, but her journey has been long and harrowing. Today, all her nightmares vanished: her debilitating service yips, her devastating defeats, the nightmare of Belarus’s politics and the suicide of her former boyfriend.
“OMG! I’m speechless!” said Aryna. “So many times I was so close. It was a dream.” She admitted it was a cliché, but she added, “Never give up on your dreams, and really work hard, and you’re going to get your dreams. I’m super proud.”
Between her tears, she offered many a gleeful smile. It was hard not to relish the power of her grit and the grace of her journey.
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: The US getting four players into the Open semis and two into the finals is a massive, long awaited, feel-good breakthrough for tennis patriots. Taylor Fritz wrote to Jessica Pegula, “started the season together at the United Cup [in Australia] and now at the US Open.” In their press conferences, Fritz and Frances Tiafoe both reflected on the American surge and that it “gives hope and shows that we’re knocking on the door of winning a slam…There are four or five of us.” Tiafoe said, “The floodgates have opened.”
ITALIANS CAN’T STOP COOKING: What nation has had a better season than this year’s Italians? Jannik Sinner won the Aussie Open and is in the US Open final. Jasmine Paolini reached the French and Wimbledon finals, and, with Sara Errani. made the Roland Garros women’s doubles final and won the Olympic Gold medal in Paris. Lorenzo Musetti won the bronze medal and made the Wimbledon semis. Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori won the US Open mixed title.
UNKIND TO AMERICANS: If Sinner wins the Open title, he’ll not only claim both hard court championships this year, he’ll have gone through the ranks of American tennis with a certain reckless abandon, having beaten Mackie McDonald and Alex Michelsen in the first two rounds, Tommy Paul in the fourth round and Fritz in the final.
TSITSIPAS FILES LAWSUIT: Following allegations made by his former physio about Stefanos Tsitsipas’s relationship with his father, the Greek star is taking legal action. The world No. 11, who fired his father Apostolos as his coach last month, said he is looking to “restore the prestige and dignity of the family,” affected by the physio’s claims in L’Equipe that the father-son “relationship has not been sustainable for years,” and “Their way of operating is harmful.”
GYM RATS OF THE WORLD UNITE: After Jack Draper vomited three times on court and faded badly, and Frances Tiafoe cramped and felt his body let him down Friday night, it’s clear that conditioning was the decisive factor in the US Open semis won by Sinner and Fritz.
