Aryna Sabalenka has stormed her way into the US Open final for the second consecutive year running.
The Belarusian tennis player will have to deal with a crowd which will be praying on her downfall as the New York horde will be no doubt cheering for home grown American Jessica Pegula.
The world number two admitted that she struggled to deal with the crowd last year when she lost to American Coco Gauff in the final.
However one interesting statistic has been revealed which may give her the upper hand in today’s mighty clash.
According to the tournament’s official tracking data, the World No. 2 clocks an average forehand topspin speed of 80 mph, which ranks faster than some of the top men tennis players including Carlos Alcaraz (79 mph), Jannik Sinner (78 mph) and Novak Djokovic (76 mph).
Aryna Sabalenka has stormed her way into the US Open final for a second consecutive year
The world no.2 has been a force to be reckoned with this tournament
Reacting to the remarkable statistic after her quarter-final victory over Qinwen Zheng, the 26-year-old said she couldn’t quite believe it.
‘I saw my stats on my forehand, and I actually can’t believe it’s that fast,
‘It felt kind of uncomfortable being at the top [of the list] and even hitting harder than guys. That’s a really interesting stat.’ she said.
This isn’t the first time Sabalenka has out classed her male counterparts and found herself on top of the stats leaderboard.
Earlier this year, in her first round match at the French Open against Erika Andreeva, she recorded a bolstering forehand top speed of 78 mph.
The impressive number even managed to outdo the men’s number one Jannik Sinner shot as he could only manage a forehand top speed of 75mph.
The sheer force of her forehand shot at Roland Garros earlier this year was rather surprising to everybody not because of a lack of ability but because the clay courts present at the French venue usually produce the slowest-paced forehands among all four major events.
The Belarusian clocks an average forehand topspin speed of 80 mph, which ranks faster than some of the top men tennis players including Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic
Earlier this year, in her first round match at the French Open against Erika Andreeva, she recorded a bolstering forehand top speed of 78 mph beating Sinner’s 75mph
Sabalenka booked her place in this year’s final after overcoming a hostile crowd in the semi-finals when she came up against American Emma Navarro.
She powered her way through the game, continuing to hit impressive, powerful shots against her opponent to claim a 6-3, 7-6 win over the American.
Sabalenka’s formidable groundstrokes and brute force has drawn comparisons to 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams so it only seems right that today she will become the first player since the American to feature in back-to-back finals at Flushing Meadows.
This time around she will be hoping she can get the win after a disappointing loss last year.
She enters the final as the overwhelming favourite and looks on course to claim her first US Open title and third career grand slam title.
However Pegula will be hoping to derail the Belarusian’s momentum and cause an upset which would please the American crowd.
