Aryna Sabalenka has had an interesting career. She has won three Grand Slam titles, and she has held the WTA for a year now. She is terrific, and currently the most consistent of the high-end players. What she isn't (yet) is an all-time great player.
The odd part is that she struggles to dominate her finals matches. Rival Iga Swiatek does, having lost none of her major finals and with a career finals record of 24-5. Sabalenka is 20-18. Of course, her first-round match of the 2025 US Open was not a final, but an example of how the Belarusian struggles when she shouldn't.
Forget the second set. By this time, her opponent, Rebeka Masarova, had lost her will. The Swiss player had a real chance to steal the first set from the WTA No. 1, but played a crucially bad point trailing 5-6, serving to force a tie break.
Aryna Sabalenka sweeps away Rebeka Masarova at the 2025 US Open
She had the chance to put away the Belarusian, but Sabalenka chased down a shot that went wide, and Masarova mishit the next shot to keep Sabalenka alive. Against players such as Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, and Coco Gauff, Sabalenka would not have been so lucky.
Of course, tennis is as much a mental game as a physical one. If a player believes they can't win or believes their mistakes are only going to compound, they are beaten. Masarova is 26 years old, but has never won a WTA title. One would assume she doubts herself, even though she has the size and speed to be difficult to play.
In the second set, after Aryna Sabalenka took a 3-0 lead, Rebeka Masarova hung her head. Her body language said more than her play ever could. She was defeated, even if there was a bit of the match left to play. She double-faulted in the next game and trailed 0-4.
Masarova salvaged some confidence by holding at 0-5. Maybe the small victory won't help her in the near future, but in the long term, she might believe in herself a bit more. She needs to.
Aryna Sabalenka took the match 7-5 6-1. She will next play an ascending Polina Kudermetova in the second round.