‘Ruthless’ Aryna Sabalenka defends her Australian Open title with a dominant win over Qinwen Zheng

Aryna Sabalenka remains the champion at the Australian Open as she defeats Qinwen Zheng to win the 2024 edition.

‘Ruthless’ Aryna Sabalenka defends her Australian Open title with a dominant win over Qinwen Zheng

Aryna Sabalenka (Credits: CNET)

There’s a new Queen in Australia and she goes by the name of Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian sensation has successfully defended her crown at Melbourne Park as she becomes the champion at the 2024 Australian Open.

Up against 12th-seeded Qinwen Zheng, who was making her debut in a Grand Slam final, Sabalenka won the tie 6-3, 6-2 in 1 hour and 16 minutes. Playing as the defending champion, she was the number one target for all remaining 127 players in the draw. But the Belarusian proved too good for them yet again.

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This is the former World No. 1‘s second career Grand Slam title in singles, while her fourth overall. Just to remind the readers, she won the AO Doubles title in 2021 partnering with Elise Mertens. The pair had earlier won the doubles title at the 2019 US Open as well.

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Sabalenka was defending 2000 points at this year’s Australian Open and had her World No. 2 rank in danger. But a successful title defense now helps her stay at World No. 2 and keep the pressure on current World No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Total domination by Aryna Sabalenka as she wins the match 6-3, 6-2

The defending champion made a fiery start to the proceedings. She secured a break in the very first service game of the Chinese and then held her own to make it 3-0. Zheng did fight back but it was not enough as Sabalenka held match points at 5-2.

Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka (Image via Twitter)

The Chinese youngster however saved three match points and won the tiebreaker to make it 5-3. It only delayed the Belarusian’s success as she served out the set in the very next game. Zheng did snatch another match point but could not stop the second seed.

The second set was no different as Sabalenka raced to a 2-0 lead after securing a break in the very first game of the set. Zheng did not make the mistake of the first set and got on the scoreboard in the third game to make it 2-1. The Belarusian held and broke in back-to-back games to make it 4-1 and it was no looking back after that.

Despite missing on four championship points, the Belarusian maintained composure to serve out the match at 5-2 and become a two-time Major winner.

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