Nothing should take away from how brilliant Siegemund was. She stepped forward to the Sabalenka serve, taking it on early, and chopped her way through her opponent’s huge groundstrokes.
Sabalenka held serve just once in the opening set – and even that required three deuce games – and quickly found herself a double break down.
She rescued one as Siegemund served for the first set at 5-2 but slapped a return into the net to concede the opener in 57 minutes.
Sabalenka immediately left the court to reset herself and it seemed to have worked. She broke straight away for a 2-0 lead but, visibly unsettled, conceded it in the next game.
The match could have slipped away in Sabalenka’s next service game as she was taken from 40-0 to deuce – but roared on by the crowd, she held, then won four games in a row to force a decider.
An early break to love in the third set – secured on a brilliant passing winner from Siegemund – looked to have rattled Sabalenka.
She should have broken back in the next game but ended up falling to her knees at the net, arms outstretched as she sent the passing shot wide to go 3-1 down.
A nervy ending saw Sabalenka break back, immediately concede it and then capitalise as Siegemund served to stay in the match, ultimately securing victory with a relieved-looking winner at the net.
“It doesn’t matter if you are a big-hitter or a big server – you have to work, run and earn the victory,” Sabalenka added.
“It is tough, but beautiful.”
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