{"id":363170,"date":"2024-01-27T09:13:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T10:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363170"},"modified":"2024-01-27T12:02:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T12:02:39","slug":"serena-esque-star-touches-perfection-in-ruthless-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363170","title":{"rendered":"'Serena-esque' star touches perfection in ruthless final"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffryna Sabalenka<\/a> has successfully defended her Australian Open<\/a> crown, defeating Zheng Qinwen<\/a> in Saturday night's women's final.<\/p>\n

The reigning champion was at her dominant best on Rod Laver Arena, securing a 6-3, 6-2 straight-sets \ufefftriumph over her inexperienced opponent in just over an hour of court time.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka flew out of the gates in the first set, grabbing an early break, before continuing to flex her muscle on serve throughout a relatively one-sided opening set.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Billions' of eyes on China's quirky karaoke queen<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Djokovic's bold call after shock loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Sinner's revelation after reaching final<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The \ufeffworld No.2 didn't take her foot off the gas in the second set, powering through some impressive service games and managing to break Zheng on a couple of occasions.<\/p>\n

After giving up four championship points and almost being broken at 5-2 in the second set, Sabalenka kept her composure and closed it out, despite the never-say-die attitude on show from Zheng. \ufeff<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 Australian Open live and exclusive on Nine,<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and ad-free on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sabalenbka<\/p>\n

With her clinical performance, Sabalenka became the first back-to-back women's winner at the event since fellow Belarusian star Victoria Azarenka, who achieved the feat in 2012 and 2013.<\/p>\n

"There is something Serena-esque about what we have seen tonight," Sam Smith said on Nine's coverage. \ufeff<\/p>\n

"The way that she has gone about it, you would not know that this is only her third major final.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"She has done it without dropping a single set. You wonder if we're looking at a season full of Sabalenka domination."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Zheng had been one of the surprise packets of the Australian Open as she looked to replicate the success of China's only other slam winner – Li Na – but was unable to overcome the second seed, despite producing some nice moments in defeat.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka's only other appearance at a major final came in the US Open last year, losing to teenage sensation Coco Gauff in three sets.<\/p>\n

The men's singles final will take place on Sunday night between Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, which will conclude a blockbuster two-week grand slam at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

\"'That's<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\ufeffryna Sabalenka has successfully defended her Australian Open crown, defeating Zheng Qinwen in Saturday night's women's final. The reigning champion was at her dominant best […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363170"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363176,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363170\/revisions\/363176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/363172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}