After destroying her top five rivals, Arina Sabalenka needed a minor miracle to reach the final of the US Open 2023. Madison bounces back from an improbable goal against Keys (0-6, 7-6, 7-6). Coco will face Gaff in her quest for the second Grand Slam of her career.
It’s enough to spend the entire tournament bragging rights Arina Sabalenka and its strict discipline so that, in just half an hour, all arguments fell. The Belarusian has yet to offer a package on this US Open, the first went out in the worst possible way tonight: 6-0! The woman, who will be world No. 1 next Monday, has lost just 21 games in five matches. Madison Keys, that version we fear the most, but it rarely appears in major events. Of course, it is necessary to wait to enjoy its maximum expression. Even if only for half an hour.
The match started much like the previous semi-final, with a very connected Coco Goff and a slightly distracted Karolina Muchova. Here the weapons were different and you could say they were disastrous, but we all knew that at some point the recession had to change. At least balance the combat a bit. Basically, the best tennis player on the planet — as of Monday, I already know — can’t lose a Grand Slam semifinal with less than an hour on the clock, which doesn’t bode well for the women’s circuit. A break in the third game of the second set signaled the last straw. Sabalenka paid for it with his fraud, and then with his team, he was the one who actually paid for it with the caution of the chair umpire. From that moment, something changed in the atmosphere.
Well, the change didn’t even last one game. The first thing we had after the previous scene was that the Belarusian himself recovered the gap. Well, good news for entertainment and shock excitement. Sure enough, the next thing that came to us was the engine Madison again destroying his opponent’s strong point, though not as strong as on other days. Arena was no longer disastrous in the first round (3 winners and 12 unforced errors), but he was still far from the form he had shown in the previous five rounds. Keys’ confidence has multiplied, and with the addition of crowd support, adverse scoring, and a battle against the clock…
How hard is it to close out a game
…What we find is a player who cannot play directly. I can’t find a word to better describe it, it’s impossible to do anything about Keys when he’s at his best. If you get it right, no points. If it’s with sticks, you won’t even smell it. There are no long points because the trigger is loaded all the time. It’s the closest thing to an avalanche in the middle of winter, and if it catches you down, the only thing you can do is pray that it passes quickly and that the torture doesn’t drag on. It was up 5-4, where the North American held serve to end the performance. If he passes the last exam, nothing more. But it couldn’t.
Nerves got the better of her in a game where everything was a mistake, leaving her serve empty and giving her opponent extra life. Sabalenka’s talent was there, though it’s fair to say he found the gift. Suddenly there was Agrabah and his rigging lamp in the flushing meadows. The desire to listen was clear: the third collection. A match that was completely closed was riddled with errors until it led to a tiebreak, where Arena did nothing more than capitalize on the American’s first moment of weakness. The Belarusians’ chances went from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye as the semi-final was pushed to the final round.
Head question
Considering the stuff we’ve come to expect from the start, the third round is unsurprisingly mediocre. Because if we face two great servers on the circuit, the normal thing is that neither of them lose their serve or at least they win more turns than they give up. With a couple of breaks coming hand in hand, both players were tied at 4-4 in the final set, surely thinking the match was already done. There were last meters ahead and the head becomes the fundamental factor that cannot fail you.
And so we go to 5-5, 6-6 and finally, the final super tiebreak. The excitement would end here as the only notable moment was when the Belarusian dominated 7-3 to celebrate the win, completely oblivious to the fact that she needed three more points to clinch victory. The job was done two minutes later, with the Belarusian making a heroic return, almost certain to be in the abyss. After getting over the scare, it’s time to rest, recover, and start thinking about Coco Gaff and what awaits Arthur Ashe to cheer his opponent on Saturday.
