Miami, Mar 30: Aryna Sabalenka captured her maiden Miami Open title after beating over America's Jessica Pegula in the final.

In a rematch of last year's US Open final, despite having her formidable serve broken three times in the opening set, Sabalenka, the world No. 1, calmly shook it off, achieved the critical break at 5-6 which catapulted her to a 7-5, 6-2 victory over fourth-ranked Pegula 1 hour and 28 minutes to win her first Miami Open Masters 1000.

It was a big victory for Sabalenka, who suffered narrow losses in her last two finals, at the Australian Open (to Madison Keys) and Indian Wells (to Mirra Andreeva).

"Finally, I was able to play my best tennis in the final, and I’m just super happy with the result and with the performance, I’d say, [for] these months. So, super happy to hold this beautiful (crystal Butch Buchholz) trophy.

“Honestly going into this match, I had the mentality that no matter what happens, if she’s going to break me, I had the mentality to stay there, to focus on myself, to fight for every point no matter what.

“I didn’t want to lose another final, to be honest. It’s really tough to lose in the final. So if someone would say that, I’d be, like, OK, it’s going to be a battle, I’m ready for that," said Sabalenka.

Sabalenka is now up to eight WTA 1000 singles titles in her career, equaling Maria Sharapova's total. The only players ahead of her in WTA 1000 titles, dating back to the creation of that tier in 2009, are Serena Williams (13), Victoria Azarenka (10), Iga Swiatek (10), Simona Halep (9) and Petra Kvitova (9).

Overall, Sabalenka won her 19th Hologic WTA Tour singles title by triumphing in Miami. 17 of her 19 titles have come on her beloved hard court, including all three of her Grand Slam singles titles -- the 2023 Australian Open, the 2024 Australian Open and the 2024 US Open, WTA reports.

The 26-year-old didn’t drop a set in any of her six matches as she defeated defending champion Danielle Collins, Olympic gold medalist and ninth-ranked Qinwen Zheng, seventh-ranked Jasmine Paolini and fourth-ranked Pegula, arguably the second-best hard-court player on the planet.

It’s only the second time in Sabalenka’s career that she was able to topple three Top 10 players in a single event, dating back to the 2022 WTA Finals (Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Swiatek).

(IANS)

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