Aryna Sabalenka added yet another Grand Slam title to her bag as she emerged as the women’s singles champion at the 2024 US Open. Beating the home favorite Jessica Pegula in straight sets, Sabalenka yet again proved why she is considered the best hard court player in women’s tennis currently.
Congratulations were in order for the Belarussian on her third Grand Slam victory. Carlos Alcaraz was one of the first big tennis names to do so. Alcaraz’s reaction came in almost as soon as the match ended, indicating that he was either watching the match or following the score online, in Valencia where he is training for the Davis Cup 2024 Finals.
@SabalenkaA!!! Bravo!! https://t.co/kNqOi8iYN2
— Carlos Alcaraz (@carlosalcaraz) September 7, 2024
The tweet could be seen as contradictory to Alcaraz’s statement on women’s tennis earlier in 2024, during the Australian Open. In one of the post-match interviews, Alcaraz was asked about the rivals he loves to watch playing. While he named a few men’s players, when asked about women’s tennis players, he couldn’t come up with any names.
“I’m going to put you on the spot, what about WTA?,” was the question Jim Courier asked Alcaraz after the latter named Medvedev, Djokovic and Sinner as players he loves to watch.
“Well, I watch WTA as well. No, I mean, when I can obviously…” Alcaraz had said with a nervous, awkward laugh.
Alcaraz’s response was also interrupted by the crowd’s laughter since his answer was not really convincing. However, the 4-time Grand Slam champion’s tweet showed that Sabalenka is one of his favorite women’s tennis players currently and WTA matches interest him as well indeed.
Another reason can be the friendship that has developed between Sabalenka and Alcaraz. Co-incidentally, the duo share the same birthday, i.e. May 5. The two were also spotted practicing together at the Wimbledon this year. Their pictures showed that the two had quite fun playing tennis together and preparing for the grass court championship.
Sabalenka beat Pegula in straight sets 7-5, 7-5 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium to grab her first-ever US Open title. Earlier, she had successfully defended her Australian Open title this year by beating China’s Qinwen Zheng in the final.
