Aryna Sabalenka completes rare Australian Open-US Open double with victory in New York

With her 7-5, 7-5 victory over Jessica Pegula in the final of the US Open on Saturday, Aryna Sabalenka not only captured her third Grand Slam title, she also added her name to a very exclusive list.

She’s the eighth woman in the Open Era to win the Australian Open and the US Open in the same year, and just the fifth woman to do it since both majors have been held on hard courts.

The US Open switched from clay to hard courts in 1978, while the Australian Open switched from grass to hard courts in 1988.

Sabalenka is just the second woman in the last 27 years to achieve the feat, joining Angelique Kerber, who won them both in 2016.

WOMEN TO WIN AUSTRALIAN OPEN AND US OPEN IN SAME YEAR IN OPEN ERA (players to do it when both on hard courts bolded):
Margaret Court [1969, 1970, 1973]
Chris Evert [1982]
Martina Navratilova [1983]
Steffi Graf [1988, 1989]
Monica Seles [1991, 1992]
Martina Hingis [1997]
Angelique Kerber [2016]
Aryna Sabalenka [2024]

Sabalenka was actually just a set away from completing the double in 2023, winning the Australian Open and then making it all the way to the final of the US Open before finishing runner-up to Coco Gauff, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, after not only winning the first set but also holding a break point early in the second set.

This year, nobody really came that close to stopping her—she won the Australian Open without dropping a set, and even after losing the first set of her third-round match at the US Open to Ekaterina Alexandrova, Sabalenka stormed back for a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory.

She didn’t drop another set in New York.

Sabalenka will head into the next Grand Slam event, the 2025 Australian Open, having won 27 of her last 28 matches at hard-court majors, as well as 14 in a row in Melbourne.