WHAT HAPPENED: Aryna Sabalenka shook off a Round 3 scare on Friday night to come back from a set down and defeat Ekaterina Alexandrova, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, at the 2024 US Open.
The pair’s Round 3 match, set for a Friday night session, actually started at 12:08 a.m on Arthur Ashe, and thus set the record for the latest match start in the history of the tournament.
In the bleary hours of Saturday morning, it looked like Sabalenka would have been another name added to the growing list of tournament shocks, joining the likes of Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.
The No. 2 seed clocked a total of 14 unforced errors in the first set, double the number of Alexandrova. The big baseliner went too big, and couldn’t land her forehands. At 3-2 in the first set, Alexandrova managed to save breakpoint with an ace against Sabalenka to put her up another game and used that momentum to take the set, marking the first Alexandrova managed to take from the 2023 US Open runner-up since 2022.
Set two saw Sabalenka iron out whatever was causing her wild errors. The pair split the first two games before Sabalenka went into super smash mode, and served Alexandrova the first break of the set. She converted two break points and clocked two aces to power the pair into a third set.
Sabalenka quickly racked up five consecutive games, before Alexandrova broke to get on the board. Alexandrova staved off her exit until the eighth game, when Sabalenka relied on her wide serve to throw off Alexandrova’s momentum, take the set and match.
“I was just trying to stay as low as possible,” Sabalenka said. “I was just trying to put as many balls as I can back on that side, because she played incredible tennis in the first set, and it was really tough to change it. I'm really happy that I was able to turn around this match and to get this really difficult win.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Sabalenka will make her fourth consecutive Round 4 appearance in Queens and is set to spar with No. 33 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium. In the pair’s nine meetings, Sabalenka leads 7-2 over Mertens, including a 2021 US Open fourth-round win.
MATCH POINT: The set Sabalenka dropped to Alexandrova snapped her latest winning streak. Before Friday’s match, she had won 14 sets without dropping a single one between her Cincinnati title run and first two rounds in Flushing.
