Pressure cooker moment? No problem—Aryna Sabalenka just added another chapter to her clutch legacy. The world No. 1 shrugged off Leylah Fernandez to win 6-3, 7-6(2) in the third round of the US Open, clinching her 18th consecutive tie-break win, the longest streak in the Open Era.
Match Unpacked
- Fernandez surged, threatening in the opening game with several break point chances—but Sabalenka stood firm.
- She grabbed the key break to take set one. In the second, both players held serve until the breaker. Once there? Sabalenka roared to a 6–1 lead and sealed it with a forehand winner that felt like a statement.
What It Means
- Tie-break dominance: Sabalenka moves to an unfathomable 20-1 tiebreak record this year, the most tiebreak wins in a season in the Open Era.
- Redemption complete: The victory was a perfect piece of payback—Fernandez knocked her out of the 2021 semifinal, and Sabalenka made sure this time, she wrote the ending.
- Onward she charges: She’s now 6-0 in third-round matches here in New York, and moving into Round 4 with steam—and a chance to chase down Serena Williams’s back-to-back Slam feat.
Clutch Crunch Take
Sabalenka doesn’t just win. She coerces victory when it hurts the most. Tie-breaks aren’t her gamble—they’re her playground. With each rise at the key moments, she transforms pressure into her art form. And if you’re wondering what it takes to defend a US Open title? Look no further.
(Image credits: si.robi, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Image cropped)