WHAT HAPPENED: It’s all about good timing for Aryna Sabalenka. And there’s none better for the No. 2 seed than right here, right now.
Coming off of a shoulder injury that hampered the middle part of her season, the 26-year-old returned to her top form this summer with a quarterfinal appearance in Toronto, a semifinal run in Washington, D.C., and a title in Cincinnati, which she won without dropping a set.
Her rise back to championship form couldn’t have come at a better time, as she enters the 2024 US Open eager to improve upon last year’s runner-up finish. In Monday’s opening-round match against Australian qualifier Priscilla Hon, Sabalenka took a dominating 6-3, 6-3 win to advance into the second round.
"If we compare first round in Cincinnati and first round here, I would say that here I did much better," Sabalenka told USOpen.org post-match. "But if we compare it with the semis and final, then I think I didn't play my best tennis today, but I'm happy that even though I didn't feel my best I was able to stay in the game and to put so much pressure on my opponent. I'm quite happy with the level today."
In just her second career US Open main-draw appearance, the 26-year-old Hon competed as if she had been on this stage for years, swinging freely and with assertive power under the lights of Louis Armstrong Stadium. She put pressure on the No. 2 seed and matched her shot for shot, literally, as both women hit five winners and seven unforced errors in the first set. But it was Sabalenka’s first-serve win percentage (91%) that gave her the edge to take the opening frame.
The world No. 2 was simply outhitting her Australian opponent to build a 3-1 lead in the second. Despite Hon’s attempt to change the tempo of the rallies, a strategy that earned her a break of serve, Sabalenka answered by digging out of a 0-40 hole in back-to-back games to get ahead 5-2. Hon made one final push to extend the match at 5-3, but Sabalenka managed to close it out at love and advance into the second round.
WHAT IT MEANS: The reigning Australian Open champion, Sabalenka has reached the US Open semifinals or better in her past three attempts and is a clear favorite to take it all this year. She will next face Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti, against whom she owns a 1-0 head-to-head record from a straight-sets win on the hard courts of Brisbane this year. If she can string together seven wins on the courts of Flushing Meadows, Sabalenka will be the first female player to claim both hard-court Grand Slam titles in the same year since Angelique Kerber in 2016.
Hon exits the US Open still seeking her first tour-level main-draw win this season.
MATCH POINT: After a late start that saw these women take the court at nearly 11 p.m., Sabalenka made it a short night and took care of business in one hour and 18 minutes to finish shortly after midnight. She finished with 27 winners to Hon’s 12.
