WHAT HAPPENED: Aryna Sabalenka’s summer success keeps rolling, thanks to her straight-sets Round 2 win over Lucia Bronzetti, 6-3, 6-1, on Wednesday at the 2024 US Open.
Under the shade in a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium, Sabalenka powered over the world No. 76, and out-hit, out-paced and out-performed the Italian. Sabalenka sizzled with five aces and 24 winners en route to victory against Bronzetti.
Sabalenka was in control from the opening serve, as the No. 2 seed seized the opportunity to run Bronzetti around the court and relied on her blistering forehand to clock two winners on the way to taking the first game.
Bronzetti, in her third appearance at the US Open, managed to initially keep pace with the 2023 US Open runner-up, and was able to tie the game at 2-all before Sabalenka took the next three games. Bronzetti broke Sabalenka to bring her game count to three, but Sabalenka served and won the final game before taking the set.
That first set conquest propulsed Sabalenka in the second set, where she only dropped one game before she prevailed. In total, Sabalenka scored five aces and 24 winners en route to victory against Bronzetti in just over an hour.
Post-win, Sabalenka celebrated by embracing a special fan—a young girl wearing the same Nike dress as the two-time Grand Slam champion. Sabalenka’s mini me even donned a matching (temporary, we hope) tiger tattoo on her forearm. Sabalenka was even gifted a stuffed tiger from the young fan.
“That was really adorable moment,” Sabalenka said of the interaction. “I just looked up and I saw on the big screen, like, mini me. And it was so cute. And it's such an motivation to keep going to how to inspire the young generation. I mean, that's the main goal.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Sabalenka has benefited from a generous draw thus far, and if she remains healthy, can easily keep clocking wins. In Round 3, she will face her first seed of the fortnight, No. 29 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova. The two are currently split in meetings. Their last match was at Wimbledon last year, where Sabalenka sent Alexandrova home in straight-sets in the Round of 16.
After suffering from a shoulder injury that forced her to withdraw from Wimbledon in July, Sabalenka returned to the summer swing in prime form. She made it to the quarterfinals in Toronto, the semifinals in D.C. and captured the title in Cincinnati without dropping a set. Since her first match in Cincy, the power player has won 14 consecutive sets, which will bolster Sabalenka, as she looks to finish better in Flushing than she did in 2023. Sabalenka fell in the 2023 final to American Coco Gauff in straight sets.
The semifinals could see a rematch of that final, should Sabalenka, as well as American Coco Gauff, take six consecutive wins in Queens. Both are placed in the draw’s bottom half. Sabalenka fell to Gauff in the final in a three-set brawl.
MATCH POINT: Sabalenka’s greatest accomplishments in tennis have come on the hard courts. 13 of the 15 titles she holds, including her two consecutive Australian Open titles (2023 and 2024), have been captured on the speedy surface. Should Sabalenka lift the trophy at Flushing Meadows, she would be the first female player to win both hard court Slam titles in the same year since Angelique Kerber in 2016.
