US Open Day 14 - Sabalenka’s fitting finale to 2025

0:10Jannik Sinner:Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast coming to you on another stormy night in New York City. It is 8.30 in the evening when the media restaurant, due to some seriously inclement weather swirling around us here in Flushing Meadows, New York, Matt Roberts very own pathetic fallacy how you doing Matt I'm okay I'm okay thank you yes my my mood was a bit like the weather at times today unsettled should we say but I'm okay people bounce back we bounce back the bit lives we go into 2026 we ride again she's reached back to that Grand Slam finals you don't have to have blonde hair we're okay we are okay and we've all just come from the winning press conference of Irina Savalenka chugging on champagne dressed in a silver lame jacket and generally being an all around vibe that we're going to try and channel in this podcast David yes she looked like she's about to go into the night good luck to her she deserves to the jacket does look waterproof so she's equipped.

1:25Jannik Sinner:Unlike us. Better equipped than me. I'm pretty nervous about the jog for the bus at this point. We've got an hour. Yeah, there could be some good content coming on Instagram tonight. Do give us a follow. Right, let's talk about the final. Irina Sabalenka beating Amanda Anisimova 6-3 7-6. A fourth grand slam for Sabalenka and the first woman to win back-to-back titles here in New York since Serena Williams in 2014. This has been a hard title to defend. Of course, Irina Sabalenka has done it. Yeah, and I think that that's one of the two narratives of struggle that she's managed to overcome and defeat today.

2:08She carries weight of expectation and pressure extremely well. I know there have been moments in her career where things have got the better of her. And twice this year in grandstand finals although i do think they were very very different madison keys kind of ripped that match out of her grasp and then the occasion and the coco goff ability to to sort of turn things in her favor by making things scrappy amongst the wind well you know those things went against her and and sometimes she doesn't handle it but she always comes back for more this is what i love about arena sabalenka she doesn't shrink she doesn't go away she messed yeah she you could say she messed up at the french open and and said some regrettable things that were unsporting but i think that that's still very human what what she did there and she came back out she sort of swallowed it and and apologized to coca goff has has been unflinching in her apologies ever since about that and saying it'll never happen again and i did wonder whether that might take some sort of edge off her competitiveness or not a bit of it and tonight you know she had to stare down an opponent who'd beaten her only a a couple of months ago in a big semi-final again at Wimbledon she had to withstand the 24 ,000 crowd she always plays Americans here in the latter stages and and she also had to withstand a fight back a roaring fight back when the match looked won and the fact that she's still won I have such admiration for her yeah me too and look Hannah on the barge called her kind of the the main character of this Grand Slam season which I think was a great expression she's just played so many of the big matches she's been there present at so many of the big moments but hadn't been able to be the one lifting the trophy until today and it does feel fitting that Irina Sabalenka ends the 2025 season with a Grand Sam title she's the world number one she's so consistent at the slams and she's obviously put in the work you know I found it interesting hearing her compare that Australian Open experience where she said she just wanted to move on and forget about it where she said after the Roland Garros final she decided she needed to look to look at what went wrong and she realized she did have the wrong mindset and if ever there was going to be a test of whether that had worked it was today for all the reasons David said crowds opponent coming back at her serving for the match not closing it right there and then in it in her own words I was really close to losing control but she didn't she absolutely held it together and I thought played a really good match actually from start to finish just the level was really, really high.

5:10And yeah, it feels right in a way that we're talking about Irina Sabalenka as a Grand Slam champion this season. Yeah, this match was so close. It was teetering on the edge of following the same script as the two other Grand Slam finals that she's played this season, in particular the French Open final against Coco Gauff. and she told us that were it not for an epiphany, she had in Mykonos, another great advert for the great party reset. Post-Werlongarras.

5:47Jannik Sinner:It doesn't have to be Ibiza, folks. It can be Mykonos. She said, I was in Mykonos reading my book, enjoying the view, and I had this kind of moment of realisation. She said, I had been expecting everything in these Grandstand finals to go my way and I'd found myself shocked when my opponents fought and when my opponents made it difficult for me and put me in difficult positions and didn't just kind of lie down. And she said, look, I know that's stupid, but that was how I was going into these Grand Slam finals. And when she missed that smash in the latter stages of the second set, and she ended up being broken back by Enes Amova, a five-all, ends up in the tie-break.

6:34The tide could have turned then had it not been for that moment in Mykonos when she found a way to accept that not everything is on her racket. And in that sense, I actually think the match-up today in this Grandstand final was helpful in a sense because it was not all on her racket today. Amanda Nisimov in that first set hit 28 combined winners and unforced errors. Sabalenka hit seven, which is absolutely extraordinary. Normally when Sabalenka's playing, she is the one racking up the winners, racking up the unforced errors. And I've often talked about it, how it's a great thing to have a match on your racket, but it is stress-inducing if you're not quite playing your best.

7:21You constantly have to keep going for it. was today in this matchup, I think she sensed Anissimova at times was hitting those absolutely glorious shots that we know she can, but she was also missing quite a bit Anissimova, and Sabalenka was contained, she was controlled, she was aggressive when she needed to be, and interesting hearing Anissimova talked about how rushed she still felt, even though she was kind of the one in control of a lot of the rallies, Sabalenka was still putting her under pressure. so I think it was helpful in that sense from a mindset point of view that everything wasn't on her in this in this match and then she also had that extraordinary tie break record to fall back on you know I talk about it being fitting that she ends this grand slam year with a grand slam title well how fitting that she does it with a tie break which has been extraordinary was it 19 in a row now she's won she only lost one tie break all season i think she now holds the standalone record across men and women for most most tie breaks one it was beating andy roddick's record and he was in the stadium to to see that record fall like unbelievable what sabalenka did and as anisimova was coming back at her and had played a very good second set tie break herself in the semi-final Anissimova against against Osaka okay we can talk about that tie break from an Anissimova perspective and there were one or two things I'm sure she would want back and could have done differently but Sabalenka just stepped up didn't let losing serve when she was serving for it become a big thing and closed out the match and yeah a really impressive mindset performance because I've always kind of thought that game in full flow is the world number one game.

9:15Like, how do you stop it? The power, the movement, the athleticism. She's got everything. Now she's added some variety as well. But there's just been this thing holding her back in some Grand Slam finals. Not all of them, but some of them. Not a moment of that today. She was pretty exceptional, I thought, in this match, as she was in the semi-final as well against Pagula. There was a similar thing in terms of stepping up when it really counted. There was, I mean, look, there were a lot of interesting lines from Amanda Anisimova in her post-match press conference and on the court today. And we'll talk about all of them.

9:53But one of them in the press conference where she was incredibly open despite being so clearly devastated, more devastated, certainly more like obviously devastated than even after the Wimbledon final, which was interesting. But she said, I wish I'd been more aggressive today. I'm interested in both your takes on that, because I didn't think, like, I'm struggling to imagine how she could have been more aggressive, really. I view it as, this may not be what she means, but actually if I'm to understand where she might be coming from, I feel like it's aggressive the way Sabalenka is, i.e. going out to win the title, not just hit the ball.

10:36Not just, I mean, she hit the ball incredibly hard at times, but there was a sort of a mental ferociousness about Sabalenka. She wasn't fighting herself. Like, sometimes she does. Sometimes she fights with herself and fights with her box. And we've seen how that's unraveled once in a while. Here, it was channeled into winning. Whereas I felt like, unless I'm over, you could feel the frustration quite early on. and she was fighting herself. And I think sort of being aggressive, being more aggressive would be to be more positive with your intent. I think that that's a significant area of improvement for her that she needs to find.

11:20Because even two nights ago when she beat Osaka, I thought this is a risky game she's playing, the way she's going for her shots. It was incredible to watch. one of the most devastating examples of power hitting i've ever seen and she and she basically took out Osaka with that but it was it was a real roll of the dice what she was doing and i kind of feel like there is another version to her that could have won that match and could have won then today's match whereas just all out hitting the ball as hard as you can and looking like you're absolutely on the edge of your nerves all the time and you you're almost she it was almost like if she didn't win it in four shots she wasn't going to win it because the moment they started to go long she was a step behind the ball and she was spraying it 20 yards long if she couldn't if she couldn't finish it maybe a more Sabalenka like version that's it 2025 Sabalenka because you go back and watch Sabalenka five years ago and she was on that edge wasn't she she was just go for it, if it doesn't go in oh dear.

12:29Precisely and I think it's there, I think this is about learning she's learning how to be, she's already become a great player and she's just got otherworldly talent and she's found out, I mean look at the start of this year, she was nowhere she's figured out how to reach Grand Sun Finals now, now she's got to figure out how to win them and just and I just, I see a student there, the way she had that Wimbledon experience and was prepared to go back into the video to watch herself suffer. That tells me you've got a student who's going to learn. Do you think that's what she meant when she said, I think I didn't fight hard enough for my dreams today, which was the most crushing line that she delivered in the ceremony?

13:15Yeah, that was a devastating line because it didn't match up at all with what I'd seen out there. fighting back from going down an early break and again you might start thinking oh god is this going to happen again in a grandstand final but she dug in, she got the first set back on serve and she did the same twice in the second set getting it back on serve she actually played her best tennis I think when she was down in the score today in Isomova which is sometimes easier to do that I think that would be a kind of learning for her like she needs to try and bring that tennis when she's ahead and stamp her authority on a match a little bit.

14:01I think the word that came to mind is I felt like in the middle of this match she had a real drop in intensity. I think she came out fired up, hitting the ball so well. Even in the first couple of games she didn't win, there were really good signs that this was not the Wimbledon final. She was making plays, hitting winners. she then got that first set level as I said but then there just seems to be a drop in intensity which carried on into the second set a bit and I guess what I'm talking about there is kind of I think what David's talking about as well in terms of she wasn't like projecting this positive image to Sabalenka that she was there to fight or the crowd, she didn't use them and she never really does that's not a natural thing for Nisimov to use them I don't think but maybe there could have been a bit more than that and I think I think things were bothering her today you know clearly with the roof and the lights she was really struggling on on the serve and there was a lot there's quite a lot of untimely double faults her percentage wasn't great we've talked about how her serve has been improving today was a bit of a regression on that front I never felt like she had an easy hold of serve in her it was always just a little bit of a struggle and you could tell by how annoyed she still was about it in the press conference hours later that like clearly there was no chance of her overcoming that in the match she said you know it bothered her she wasn't expecting it and i think she was never quite able to snap out of that and that would be another thing that maybe she can improve going forward like you've got to be able to let those things go I think.

15:44The Osaka match was under the roof though wasn't it? But she particularly talked about it as being in the day under the roof. I think it's just something to do with what you see when you look up there because they close all the shutters at the top and it's white. Yes. She was just losing the ball. I think she was just losing the ball and it's probably something that if she plays out there again and she'll know to expect it. And I think it was the shock factor, wasn't it, that threw her off? I could imagine in future years she might come in early one morning when it's raining and have a go. Just to try it out.

16:24So I definitely take the sort of aggression point in terms of, I think she was imposing herself on Savalenka with her tennis, but maybe just not with her body language. And that's my read on it, because tennis-wise, I thought she was pretty much as aggressive as you can be, the way she was going after the ball. Like, you're not going to be able to dominate every rally against Sabalenka, but she dominated a lot of them. She was asked by Charlie Echolshare in the press conference, Anna Samova, about how she felt physically today after all the tennis she had in her legs. I think that was all of our greatest concerns for Anisimova ahead of this match.

17:13And she said, look, I was fine physically, and that's something I'm proud of, and I've been working really hard on treating Grand Slams as a marathon, like knowing you can't just reach the summit, reach one mini summit, and then say, yay me, because there's another summit to come. She said it was nerves. she said that what she was disappointed about in herself today was the extent to which she felt nerves and I didn't get to follow up on my question but I'd asked her about that crushing quote that she gave on court and she started talking about the nerves that she experienced and I wanted to ask were they the same as Wimbledon because I can imagine that would be disappointing I don't think you would expect not to feel nerves.

18:03I think everybody would feel nerves ahead of a Grand Slams final no matter how many times you've done it. But I can imagine expecting it to be less and perhaps being shocked that it wasn't. Finals at Grand Slams are so different to anything else you can experience in tennis. And, you know, she's come out here, she's won all these matches to get to this stage, but particularly if you're not the very biggest names, you're playing on smaller courts, there's not all this razzmatazz, You haven't got this focus on just this small window of time that could change your life. It's not easy to do it. And I think most players probably need to have a couple of goes.

18:44And I think if there's one thing she kind of didn't fight hard enough for, and I really don't think that that's fair terminology, I think she lost the battle with her own anxiety. and I'm not criticising but her team I was commentating so I could hear a lot of the interactions they were trying so hard to get her to stop just being doomsday about everything they were trying really hard to get her to just concentrate don't worry about that, I know you can't see the ball stop talking about that they were desperately trying she was spiralling and tail spinning, and I understand it. It's a lot easier, in a way, to accept defeat to those things.

19:34And she was having that battle, and she was trying to get something. And I felt like she got going, but it was too late. And a US Open final is so goddamn different to a Wimbledon final. Matt and I were up there in the press seats just as the countdown was starting for the players to come onto court, speculating idly about which variety of Grand San final we would find more anxiety-inducing, the silence of Wimbledon and the lack of... You're not even announced onto court. Those doors just open at the back of centre court and you're walking out. Whereas here, there's a countdown, there's a... DJ.

20:18There's a DJ. there's somebody playing not the national anthem tonight it was America the Beautiful

20:27Jannik Sinner:you know there's a big VT there's all the nonsense and like trying to translate the Wimbledon experience into tonight's experience must have felt like sort of trying to translate a foreign language that you don't quite understand she's going to be so much better for it though in the end right she's had the two polar experiences now. She's experienced all ends of the spectrum. So she's going to be fine in Australia is what we're saying. I think the beauty for her is she's a threat on every surface. Her game translates. Can I just make a mention of the game that Sabalenka played, I think at 5-6 in that second set.

21:08Which I do believe is one of the best games of the year. Because she's just lost three in a row. She's 5-3 serving for it at 5-4 loses a serve 5-6 down and knowing, I guess, maybe knowing you've got that tie break record helps to focus the mind if I could just get to a tie break but still, the crowd's going crazy, you've been made to sit down by Enesimova at 5-6 and you come out and hold I think that is big time Yeah, she's badass, isn't she? Marina Sabalenka but not in an impenetrable way

21:49Jannik Sinner:in a feels the fear and does it anyway way yeah exactly she lets you know exactly what she's feeling at any one time just this tournament she's given us all manner of incredible gifts that I've saved on my phone she lets you know and then she says bring it on anyway which is pretty incredible so it's her fourth slam they're all on hard courts what now for Irina Savalenka? And we've had this conversation before because you know when when she's won hard court titles at slams before it's felt like okay well the next thing to do is trying to win the French Open and trying to win Wimbledon and look she was extremely close to winning the French Open this year If you'd said to her, you'll beat Igor's Fiontech, she'd probably thought, well, I'll have a French Open.

22:51Jannik Sinner:Great. I'll book my celebratory dinner now. And, you know, Wimbledon, she got beaten by Nisimovar. So I still think that's it, right? Like, obviously, she's going to keep being a threat of these hardcore majors. but if she, like to fully take her into a whole new category of player, I think it's still about doing it on the other surfaces. And I think she's capable. I've always thought she's going to win Wimbledon because of, frankly, the game that she has. I just think there's going to be a time when she just all comes together there. Yeah, our Fantasy League friend Drew said in our group chat at the end of this match that he'd love to do a sort of sliding doors analysis of the two Wimbledons that Sabalenka had to miss.

23:51One through the ban of Russian and Belarusian players and one through that shoulder injury. Like, I mean, we'll never know. It's totally hypothetical speculation. But she feels like a Wimbledon champion in waiting, doesn't she, with that game? And she hasn't had that many bites at the cherry in her prime. And hearing the way she's talking, she's still producing 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 versions of herself all the time. The way she talked about how she worked with a psychologist for a long time, and she got a lot from that, and she thinks that's a really positive thing that she would recommend. But then she also said that it got to the point where she realised she was using that psychologist as a shield for accountability she said I was expecting her to fix me which is I think a very common like psychologist therapy kind of pitfall but for her to realize that and realize right okay I'm gonna I'm gonna take what I've done with that psychologist but take accountability for myself very impressive and you can you can see the fruits of it you know From on the court to off the court with the Coco Gauff hoo-ha in Paris.

25:09She does own stuff. Yeah, she does. Yeah, I've got a lot of time for her. I think she doesn't want to leave anything on the table at all. I don't think she's one of those athletes that's never going to be satisfied until she realises, okay, I just don't have it anymore, one day. Well, did you see the quotes from an interview she did ahead of the US Open about seeing herself taking a maternity break during her playing career? She said, I want to have a long playing career, but I don't want to wait necessarily until retirement to have children. So I do wonder if there's sort of a, even though she's still, I mean, was she 27?

26:01Yep. There is a sense of urgency about her, isn't there? And I wonder if that's a kind of, you know, part of the strategy. And I think she is aware that this is her prime. And I think that's why this year has been bittersweet, really, because she feels like she should probably have three of these things right now. And it was a lovely moment seeing her fall to her knees the way she did. the weight of it all suddenly came out what she'd been trying to hold up the sort of the psychological element of just having missed out twice having kind of become public enemy number one after the french open and and had to really look inwardly at that and then rebuild her get her sort of hope and game and and get to this point again and it withstand it all and then it all just came crashing out in emotion at that moment.

26:57But I think that not every year might be like this. She might not play as well as this and win two of them or three of them. I think she was a little bit unfortunate to not actually end up with more given how dominant she's been, how consistent she's been. So maybe the best is still to come. I certainly think the fact that she hasn't won it on play and grass yet means that her appetite is going to be all the more intense in the future. On Anisimova, how... Because full disclosure, after the Wimbledon run, I was so prepared to ride the wave with you both about this is just the start, she's going to reach more finals, she is going to win one.

27:44And I was very persuaded by your confidence in that and went with it. I'm not sure I really felt it in my gut. But I do now. I really do. How do you two feel about Amanda Renna Samova's Grand Slam winning prospects now? Fitness permitting, I'd be amazed if she didn't win a Grand Slam title. With that game, how it can work on all the surfaces and how much of an adult she is in terms of dealing with situations like this, that she doesn't just deflect and just sort of write things off. It's accountability again, isn't it? Yeah, it's accountability. I didn't know that was what she was like. I didn't know her very well until she reached these finals and then you hear more from her and you actually, I mean, I still can't quite get over what she told us about the Svante.

28:41Watching the video the night before, it's incredible. so I feel very bullish for her I just think that game I think she's going to get better too she just needs to maintain good fitness because I think her movement will improve still further I think her handling of the moment will improve Well she employed this sort of backroom staff what in the spring of this year these are early days Yeah, she's been with her coach Vleeshowers for about a year now but in terms of the backroom staff and Shidi I think isn't it who's been so instrumental yes that's been in the last six months or so and that's the thing I think yes we've known about Amanda Nisamova for a long time even though she's still only 24 years old but this is the first year where everything's in place for her to be a Grand Slam contender.

29:44You know, like, I think the one thing she had in place before was the top level. You know, the game has always been dangerous against the best players, but you're not a Grand Slam contender just because you've got that top level once in a while. You know, there's a lot of players who can probably lay claim to that. It's the floor and ceiling thing, isn't it? Right. She's raised the floor and she's more comfortable on tour now after her break from the sport. She's got a great team in place who I think really understand her and are tailoring her training specifically around her. Her movement's improved.

30:27She's working on her forehand and her serve, which can be great, but can also break down a little bit. the mentality is so much improved and there's still work to do we've talked about not getting so down on herself in in the matches and but as I said this is the first year where all of those things have been in place and I don't see a reason why she's not going to continue to be this person and this player for a few more years so therefore I think she remains a Grand Sam contender in the years to come and on all surfaces clay would be the one where i think she's dangerous on clay i do i think she can play on clay but i think there's i think it's harder for her to impose her her game quite so much and some of the weaknesses like the movement are exposed a little bit more on that surface but she's still dangerous she still reached the roland garros semi-final you know back in 2019 and she pushed Sabalenka this year on the clay too.

31:39So I suppose what I'm saying here is we've had a couple of other players recently, Ons Jabir, Jasmine Paolini, reach multiple grandstand finals and you kind of come out of them thinking, okay, can they keep this up? All that kind of thing. I do think Anissimova is better placed than them. You know, Paolini was much later in her career and also it felt like she was absolutely peaking to do those things. Jabir... I suppose Jabir's a little bit different because she reached that third one and that did feel like a massive, massive chance. It's after the third one where things have changed. but Frenissimova just feels like she's not hanging on to that level that she's shown these couple of months.

32:32That feels like this is her level now. And actually there may be more to come. There may be more to come and I think you talked about Grandstand Finals being so different from other matches that you play. It was interesting hearing her just say the word finals generally. She didn't say Grandstand Finals in terms of nerves. she's not won that many titles she's won three titles in her whole career and a couple of those were three set wins in finals against players that she's a lot better than do you think she could do with just winning, getting the winning feeling I think so cleaning up, going to Almaty

33:14Jannik Sinner:I don't know if there is a WGA event in Almaty but insert Almaty-esque tournament here Lintz That is what I'm saying Monastir I just think A bit more experience Of playing Big matches Finals Stuff on the line I know she won Doha Earlier this year But she didn't really Show up in the Queens final I know it was I know it was Tatiana Maria And none of the Big hitters were Showing up against her Another one who Scrambled her brain Scrambled her brain Good point You know like I think I've seen her Get out of A lot of matches this year when she has been stressed but they've just not been in finals. She is capable of doing it, it's just the final thing is difficult so the more experience she gets I do think will be helpful for her and she's going to be what, four in the world I think on Monday, like she's going to be seeded at all the events for the foreseeable future, like she's going to be able to work her way into tournaments so I really really do think the outlook is extremely positive for Anissa Nova the other thing is she's got a taste for it now and I found it really notable tonight how as sad as it was because she was obviously in a devastated mental state but the number of times she used the phrase my childhood dream my childhood dream to win one of these and I feel like I haven't heard her talk about that for quite a long time and I feel like it was a real admission to us and to herself of how much she wants this because I do think there was a period there very understandably it you know it coincided with a terrible period in her personal life her father dying experiencing

35:13experiencing mental health problems and and lack of lack of drive for for being on tour but like there certainly was a period where it looked like she kind of put that child to dream in a box and like I'm going through the motions here because it's what I know and I kind of maybe even owe it to my talent to to do this and give it a go but is my heart really in it well I felt like she's put her heart and soul into this now. And she's prepared to put that on the line and be hurt, you know, because that's what putting yourself out there potentially means. But, yeah, good on her for doing it. Just finally on Sabalenka, I feel like I'm going to ask this question, this terrible question, which you can probably see coming.

36:02I'll do it every time she wins a slam because I'm sure she's going to win more. I'm going to ask you what her final Grand Slam total is going to be come the end of her career. I think she can double what she's got now. So eight? Yes. Yeah, I had seven or eight in mind. Interesting. I think a lot of people would think that's maybe quite low. Maybe, yeah. She could get to seven next year if she has a really good year. You've had four different champions this year. That's it. There's just so many players who are capable of winning slams. I mean, if Anissimova's going to win one, as I think she will, and then I look around and I think, well, surely Sviantec's going to win some.

36:50Coco Goff has won a couple. I would have thought she'll probably get another one. And Draver's coming. Yeah. Rebacca still has that game, and Sabalenka could run into Rebacca, and we know she doesn't love that. There's so many out there that are dangerous and champions in waiting. So you're saying eight, David? I think eight's a good number, I do. Okay. I think she's got a big enough window as well to get that many. Eight's a lot of majors. Yeah. Will she do the career slam? Right now, I would say no. I'm not entirely convinced. I think she's capable of winning them all,

37:27but I don't know whether she will actually do it because it's difficult. It's bloody difficult. Will there be a better opportunity than the one she had at the French this year, I guess is the big question. I certainly think she'll win one of those two. She'll be on a quest. I'd be very surprised if she doesn't end up with a natural surface Grand Slam title. I do love a quest for a career slam. Okay, well, I'll keep asking you that question every time she wins a major title. So that is it for part one. Join us in part two when we talk about some other results from today. And of course, we'll be looking ahead to tomorrow, the final day of action at this year's US Open.