‘She fulfilled her father’s dreams’ – Fans react as Aryna Sabalenka defends her Australia Open title

Australia Open 2024 Women’s defending champion, Aryna Sabalenka has managed to defend her title in the final against Zheng Qinwen. The former won the game one-sided 6-3, 6-2, and didn’t give any chance to her opponent. Number Two seeded, Sabalenka broke Zheng’s serve in the second game and took the first set in 33 minutes.

She broke again to start the second set and maintained her dominance throughout against the No. 12-seeded Zheng.

“It’s been an amazing couple of weeks. It’s an unbelievable feeling right now,” Sabalenka said in the trophy presentation. “As usual, my speech is going to be weird — it’s not my super power.”

Only two things slowed down Sabalenka’s progress Saturday to her second Grand Slam singles title. In the third game of the second set, with Zheng serving, the match was interrupted after an activist started yelling out. The match continued after the man was escorted out by security.

Then, when she was serving for the match, Sabalenka had three championship points at 40-0 but missed two with wide or long forehands and another with Zheng’s clever drop shot. After giving Zheng a breakpoint chance, she bounced the ball away behind her in disgust but she recovered her composure to win the next three points.

In the end, she needed five championship points before finishing off with a forehand crosscourt winner. It was the kind of shot that had kept Zheng on the back foot almost from the start. The 25-year-old Sabalenka improved to two wins in three Grand Slam finals, all in a span of 13 months. She beat Elena Rybakina a year ago for the title in Australia.

This is how Twitter reacted