Zheng vs Sabalenka: Australian Open Final Analysis
14 played, 14 won. Sabalenka did not drop a set on her way to back-to-back Australian Open crowns
Thumbnail photo credit: WTA twitter
A mighty-impressive Aryna Sabalenka defended her title with powerful yet highly-efficient tennis. In the Melbourne fortnight, Sabalenka hurried through the field, jumping to a 2-0 lead in 11 of 14 sets played. Against Barbora Krejcikova, Sabalenka’s move arrived 2 games later as she built insurmountable 3-1 leads in both sets. Only Coco Gauff in the semi-final put up more resistance, coming back from 2-5 down to force a tie-break in the first set and winning 4 games in the second set (read analysis here).
The Australian Open Final matched the world #2 Sabalenka against first-time Major finalist and 12th-seed Qinwen Zheng. In line with previous rounds, Sabalenka broke Zheng’s first serve game en route to a 2-0 lead. Not showing any nerves, Zheng accrued 3 break-point chances to get back on serve immediately. But her hopes were squelched as Sabalenka fired 2 forcing forehands and a backhand winner. Three timely points that exemplified the gist of the match. Zheng put up a spirited fight and played well at times, but Sabalenka had too much power. Showing great composure, at least until reaching match point, Sabalenka was unstoppable.
Match analysis identified four key performance takeaways.
Sabalenka served superbly. Zheng served well in the first set, but not so much in the second set.
Zheng struggled to put returns into play.
Zheng supplanted Sabalenka in Serve+1 production.
Once points flowed into medium exchanges, Sabalenka’s power immediately took over.
1. Sabalenka served superbly. Zheng served well in the first set, but not so much in the second set.
Impressive serving numbers from Sabalenka: 0 double faults, 67% 1st serves made, 84% 1st serves won.
In the first set, Sabalenka won 15 of 16 1st serve points. She kept it up in the second set, point, winning 13 of 15 1st serve points until she reached a first match point. It is an impossible task to defeat a player making a relatively high percentage of 1st serves while winning virtually all points!
Anxiety affected Sabalenka as she closed out the match (needed 5 match points), so she ended up losing 3 1st serve points during the last game. It equalled the number of 1st serve points she lost in all other serve games combined. Despite that, Sabalenka’s final numbers were excellent (won 32 of 38 1st serve points, 84%).