Aryna Sabalenka won the Miami Open title for the first time

Aryna Sabalenka won her first Miami Open title by defeating American Jessica Pegula in the final. In a repeat of the US Open final last year, despite her valiant service being broken three times in the first set, Sabalenka, the world No. 1 player, kept her cool and got the decisive break at 5-6 to win 7-5, 6-2 in 1 hour 28 minutes against the fourth-ranked Pegula and lift her first Miami Open Masters 1000 title.

It was a big win for Sabalenka, who had suffered narrow defeats in her previous two finals at the Australian Open (to Madison Keys) and Indian Wells (to Mira Andreeva). Aryna Sabalenka said, “Finally, I was able to play my best tennis in the final and I am very happy with the result and performance. Very happy to hold this beautiful (Crystal Buch Buchholz) trophy.

“Honestly before going into this match, my mindset was that no matter what happens, if she is going to break me then my mindset was to stay there, focus on myself, and fight for every point, no matter what.

Aryna Sabalenka said, “Honestly, I did not want to lose another final. It is really very difficult to lose in the final. So if someone said that, I would say, okay, it is going to be a fight, I am ready for it.”

Aryna Sabalenka has now won 8 WTA 1000 singles titles in her career. With this, she has equaled Maria Sharapova's total titles. Only Serena Williams (13), Victoria Azarenka (10), Iga Swiatek (10), Simona Halep (9) and Petra Kvitova (9) are ahead of her in WTA 1000 titles since that stage in 2009.

Overall, Aryna Sabalenka won her 19th Hologic WTA Tour singles title by winning in Miami. As per the WTA report, 17 of her 19 titles have come on her beloved hard courts, including all three of her Grand Slam singles titles – the 2023 Australian Open, the 2024 Australian Open and the 2024 US Open.

The 26-year-old did not lose a set in any of her six matches as she defeated defending champion Danielle Collins, Olympic gold medallist and ninth-ranked Qinwen Zheng, seventh-ranked Jasmine Paolini, and fourth-ranked Pegula, who is arguably the second-best hard-court player. This is only the second time in Sabalenka's career that she has managed to defeat three top 10 players in the same event, starting with the 2022 WTA Finals (Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Swiatek).