How Aryna Sabalenka Won the U.S. Open

An in-depth post-final interview with Anton Dubrov, coach of 2025 U.S. Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.

NEW YORK — In order to win her fourth major title—and succeed on her third swing after two whiffs in major finals earlier this year—Aryna Sabalenka had to be willing to let go of her normal dominance.

Against Amanda Anisimova, the pure-striker whose power off both sides can put nearly any opponent on a back foot, Sabalenka—normally a self-propelled steamroller—found herself having to react rather than act.

It’s been too tall a task for Sabalenka in most of their previous meetings, losing six of her previous nine meetings against Anisimova, including the Wimbledon semifinal a couple months ago.

If Sabalenka was going to win this rematch, she would need to allow herself to be counter-instinctual, and to counterpunch.

Sabalenka only hit 13 winners in the match, the fewest in of any of her six¹ matches at this U.S. Open, and only 15 unforced errors. Most points were ended on Anisimova’s terms, as the 24-year-old American hit 22 winners against 29 unforced errors.²

But taking a relative backseat was a ride that ended in victory for Sabalenka, as she prevailed 6-3, 7-6(3) to defend her U.S. Open title.

When I asked about the unusual role she had to play to win this match, Sabalenka said she had learned her lesson from Wimbledon.

“Going to this match, I knew what to expect,” Sabalenka said. “She’s an aggressive player. She plays really aggressive tennis, and I think that at Wimbledon I was overthinking. I was doubting my decisions, and I was stopping my arms a lot, and I was making a lot of mistakes. If not mistake, that I would just slow down the speed, and then she would just step in and go for her winners.

“So going into this match, I knew that it's going to be very fast game, very aggressive. I was just trying to stay as low as possible, and I was just trying to, you know, put that speed, that pressure back on her and see how she can handle it.”

Being ready to adapt to an opponent, and to respect the challenge she presents, hasn’t always come easily to Sabalenka, she admits. This was most obviously apparent during her loss to Coco Gauff in the French Open final.

“It felt like I thought that, OK, if I made it to the final, it means that I'm going to win it, you know?” Sabalenka said Saturday. “ I sort of didn't expect players to come out there and to fight. I thought that everything going to go easily my way—which was completely wrong mindset.”

I’ve said it before, but there’s no better time than after her fourth major title win to repeat it: Sabalenka’s growth from a combustible, one-dimensional player into a well-rounded, reliable champion has been one of the most remarkable transformations in 21st-century tennis.

So in this Bounces dispatch, I’m delighted to bring subscribers an in-depth, one-on-one interview with Sabalenka’s longtime coach Anton Dubrov, who was nice enough to put down his celebratory goblet of champagne for a while as we spoke with in the players lounge under Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Dubrov and I discussed the win over Anisimova in depth, as well as the headaches of playing against Americans at the U.S. Open, the pressures of being a favorite in every match, and the inspiration he takes from the versatility of Jannik Sinner as well as the longevity of Novak Djokovic.

I don’t think you’re going to get this sort of depth anywhere else, so for the rest of this 3,000 word post, I hope you subscribe to Bounces! -Ben