Aryna Sabalenka beat home favourite and sixth seed Jessica Pegula 7-5, 7-5 in straight sets to win the women’s singles title at the 2024 US Open on Saturday.

The win marked a third Grand Slam victory for world No 2 Sabalenka, who had previously won the Australian Open twice. The 26-year-old Belarusian hit 40 winners as she became only the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win both the hard court major titles in a season.

Sabalenka, who had lost the 2023 US Open title to Coco Gauff, struggled early on against Pegula with a vociferous crowd behind the latter helping her earn a break for 2-1.

Sabalenka, however, equalised immediately and broke soon after as she led 4-2. Pegula struggled to counter the former’s relentless attacks and was down 2-5.

The 30-year-old American did fight back to level up at 5-5, breaking Sabalenka as she served for the set. The Belarusian, however, kept her nerves to win the first set 7-5 after 60 minutes of play.

Sabalenka continued to dominate the proceedings as she opened up a 3-0 lead, before Pegula mounted an incredible comeback to lead 5-3.

However, Sabalenka broke in the tenth game as she walked away with her third Grand Slam title.