IT rarely looked ever in doubt from the first serve through to the final point in the tournament, with Aryna Sabalenka dropping just one set on her way to her third straight title. The Belarusian fourth seed stormed through to her ninth overall WTA Tour singles title at the brand new Abu Dhabi WTA Tour Women’s Tennis Open, collecting the 500 points and rising three places to a career-high seventh in the world.

She was simply a class above against Russian Veronika Kudermetova, who deserved her place in the final having overcome second seed Elina Svitolina and 10th seed Anett Kontaveit along the way. In the end though, Sabalenka powered her way to a 6-2 6-2 victory, reminiscent of everything she has built in the past three tournaments, and her 15th straight win ahead of heading to the Australian summer.

“I was doing everything I could in each match from the beginning, and I’m really happy to start this season with a title,” Sabalenka said post-match. “Every final is really something special, and I would say, finals are a different competition. “This final was really nice, and I would say a really fast game.”

Having won at smaller events in Ostrava and Linz at the end of 2020, Abu Dhabi was a 500 event, and a much stronger field. Sabalenka’s ability to win it showed that her form could match up against the best, and while a number of Top 5 players were not there, she easily cast aside Maria Sakkari who had accounted for Australian Open reigning champion Sofia Kenin the match before, on Kenin’s preferred hard court.

Sabalenka hit 18 winners for only 13 unforced errors, a ratio that has been common during her winning streak, and something that had always troubled her in the past. Kudermetova hit the 13 winners for 24 unforced errors in what was her first ever WTA Tour final. The Belarusian fourth seed broke her opponent six times from 12 opportunities to really put the pressure on.

“In the first two games of her serve, I was trying to see what she was doing on her serve,” Sabalenka said post-match. “Then, I don’t know, I just felt where she was serving, and I was just following my feelings, and it worked really well. I also put a lot of pressure on her in my service games.”

The match lasted 65 minutes before Sabalenka was declared the winner, having served at a 58.7 per cent clip including five aces and winning 70.4 per cent of her first serve points. Kudermetova struggled off her second serve, winning just four of 25 points off a 53.7 per cent efficiency, opening the door for the powerful Belarusian to beak her. The 46th ranked Russian broke twice from six chances, but could not do enough to challenge the red-hot Sabalenka.

As both players prepare to head to Australia for the extended break, Sabalenka enters inside the Top 8 players in the world, crucial given it means she will not face another Top 8 player until the quarter finals at the Australian Open, something that could finally see her advance beyond the third round at Melbourne Park. In 12 appearances at the four majors, Sabalenka has reached the fourth round once – at the 2018 US Open – but has not made a quarter final yet.

Kudermetova moved up 10 spots by making the final, and now sits at 36th in the world a couple of weeks out of the Australian Open. With a good result in the next WTA Tour tournament, the 23-year-old Russian could find herself seeded at Melbourne Park. She also moved above both Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Svetlana Kuznetsova to be the second highest ranked Russian – Ekaterina Alexandrova is 33rd – with four Russians in seven spots between 33rd and 39th.

Now the WTA Tour has a two week break as players quarantine ahead of the string of Australian tournaments in Melbourne starting January 31.

Picture credit: WTA/Jimmie48