Australian Open 2024: Aryna Sabalenka beats Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-2 to retain grand slam tittle
No. 12-seeded Zheng. “It's been an amazing couple of weeks.
It's an unbelievable feeling right now," Sabalenka said in the trophy presentation. "As usual, my speech is going to be weird — it's not my super power." Only two things slowed down Sabalenka's progress Saturday to her second Grand Slam singles title. In the third game of the second set, with Zheng serving, the match was interrupted after an activist started yelling out.
The match continued after the man was escorted out by security. Then, when she was serving for the match, Sabalenka had three championship points at 40-0 but missed two with wide or long forehands and another with Zheng's clever drop shot. After giving Zheng a breakpoint chance, she bounced the ball away behind her in disgust but she recovered her composure to win the next three points.
In the end, she needed five championship points before finishing off with a forehand crosscourt winner. It was the kind of shot that had kept Zheng on the back foot almost from the start. The 25-year-old Sabalenka improved to two wins in three Grand Slam finals, all in a span of 13 months.
She beat Elena Rybakina a year ago for the title in Australia. Sabalenka is the first woman since Victoria Azarenka in 2012 and ’13 to win back-to-back Australian Open titles, and the fifth since 2000 to win the championship here without dropping a set — a group that includes Serena Williams. The 21-year-old Zheng was making her debut in a major final and playing an opponent ranked in the top 50 for the first time in this tournament.
It was the second time in as many majors their paths had met in the second week. Sabalenka beat Zheng in the U.S. Open quarterfinals last year on her way to the final, where she lost to 19-year-old
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