By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday January 15, 2025
It’s no secret that Aryna Sabalenka is the best hard court player in the women’s game right now. She’s won 16 consecutive matches at hard court majors and is bidding to become the first woman to win three consecutive titles at the Australian Open since 1999.
She’s gone 47-9 on the surface since the start of 2024.
But what makes the World No.1 so darn unstoppable? Jessica Pegula, who is also through to the third round in Australia gave her take after her second-round win over Elise Mertens.
Where to start? How about the serve, says the seventh-seeded American.
“Before she used to have a big serve, but now much more control, much more consistent,” Pegula said. “That variable that you kind of hope would go off doesn’t really seem to go off as much anymore.”
Then there is the footwork.
“I think her movement’s gotten a lot better,” Pegula added.
And then there is her willingness to add touch and feel to her blistering power game.
“Obviously she’s a super power player, can take the racquet out of your hands sometimes,” Pegula opined. “I’ve noticed she has started mixing in a lot more slices, dropshots, coming to the net.”
Recent results don’t lie, says Pegula. Sabalenka is raising her level and that is why she is racking up wins.
“She’s really gotten a lot better as a player,” says Pegula, who could potentially face Sabalenka in the semifinals if she is able to navigate a tough quarter that also features third-seeded Coco Gauff. “I think that’s why you’re seeing these results. She’s improved a lot in a lot of different aspects. Credit to her and her team.”
Pegula says that gone are the days when Sabalenka would play patchy tennis and hand out a lot of free points when one of her shots broke down. Now she is also a pillar of consistency, and the Belarusian reads her own game well enough to know what decisions to make when one element is not firing like it typically does.
“Before I felt like when I would play her, you would always tend to know something would kind of break down, whether it was her movement or her hands or her serve, whatever,” she said. “Now that’s not happening as much. If one thing breaks down, she has maybe something else in her tool shed that she can now start incorporating that you weren’t really expecting.
“I think she’s just become a really, really complete player, but also has that power game where she can be really aggressive and take the match from you, which I think is why she gets hot for a week or two. It can be really tough, I think she’s, yeah, just a really complete player right now.”
