Aryna Sabalenka holds off Jessica Pegula fightback for US Open redemption

 There was about a half-hour on Saturday afternoon when Jessica Pegula was on a fast track to completely shaking the identity of the often-overlooked American tennis star, the kind of player who consistently hangs around the top of the women’s tennis rankings but somehow rarely enters the conversations about winning the biggest titles.

She had somehow clawed her way back from the cusp of a 4-0 deficit in the second set, and instead of wallowing in that deep hole was serving for the set, a clear chance to level her U.S. Open final against Aryna Sabalenka. The noise of the crowd echoed off the closed roof of Arthur Ashe Stadium and was getting into the serious decibel range.

Sabalenka, of Belarus, was having déjà vu thoughts of frittering away a lead in a very similar spot in last year’s final, against another American, Coco Gauff, who rode the energy of the New York crowd to the title. This was going Pegula’s way.

Yet the stall came quickly, thanks to a nifty flicked backhand overhead from Sabalenka, two errors off the ground that Pegula will want back and a forehand winner from Sabalenka that tied the set at 5-5. Pegula would win just three more points, then had to go through the torturous routine of the runner-up – sitting on the chair watching the celebration, waiting to collect the lesser trophy, having to show grace in a short speech and interview in front of her triumphant foe.

“Obviously I would love to be in a third set right now,” Pegula said a little while later, still wearing the purple dress she had played in. Already though, she had a certain remove from the experience, enough even to turn her post-match news conference into a bit of a comedy routine.

“Everyone is like, ‘Congrats, amazing tournament,’” she said. “I’m like, ‘Eh, whatever.’”

Jessica Pegula lost the U.S. Open final to Aryna Sabalenka in a tight battle that came down to a few points here and there. (Robert Prange / Getty Images)

She told a story about her husband, who is obsessed with Stephen Curry, meeting the Golden State Warriors star himself, who was among the slew of celebrities who turned out for the women’s final (Emily Blunt, Shonda Rhimes, Tina Fey, John Krasinski, Flavor Flav, Claire Danes, and on and on and on).

Her husband named his iPhone Steph Curry, she said. And when she learned that he had finally met his hero, she had one thought: “Please tell me you did not tell him about the iPhone thing.”

Of course, he had. He told his wife Curry had loved it.

“I was like, ‘Did he? Or did he really think you were kind of crazy?’”

This is not the usual demeanor of a player who has just lost the biggest match of her life. Tears are often involved. Sabalenka last year was caught on video smashing her racket to pieces after her defeat to Gauff.

Pegula, who is 30, has long been one of the adults in the room in the sport.

She was burned out and battling injuries at the beginning of the year, so she took a few months off and came back fresh and healthy. She bloomed relatively late in tennis and methodically climbed from outside the top 100 to the top 3 in the second half of her 20s. Then she switched up her coaching staff, sensing that she had stagnated. She wanted to make sure she left no stone unturned.

Incrementally, she gained confidence that she could win small tournaments, then bigger ones, then even the 1,000-level competitions just below the Grand Slams, where she had never gotten past the quarterfinals. And with that new coaching team, she has worked on making her weaknesses — her serve and her movement — a little less weak.

It all began to pay off the past month, when she came home from the Paris Olympics and made three consecutive finals on hard courts, winning one of them, and playing the best tennis of her career.

Now she had gotten to one of the places where she had never been before and had quickly realized that she was going to draw more confidence from it, even if the final hadn’t gone her way.

It had been about an hour since Sabalenka — the best hard court player in the world, perhaps even the de facto world No. 1 given that she won two of the year’s four Grand Slams — had gotten the better of her in a tight battle that came down to a few points here and there.

Regrets, she had a few, but there was some good stuff, too.

“If I can’t take confidence from this, there’s got to be something wrong,” she said. “There is, like, things that are just in my head that I feel I should have done better and stuff like that. But like I said, I think that will pass in a little bit.”

With Pegula, it generally does.

The US Open has a new queen, Aryna Sabalenka has made history for her making her country proud as she captured the Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career. The Belarusian won in the United States, after beating

Jessica Pegula.

It was on a straight set of 7-5 and 7-5 and she immediately burst into tears after the final play after being on the court for one hour and 53 minutes. The 26-year-old player has reached the second step of the world ranking and she looks to climb once more.

She let it slip away a year ago but not this time as Sabalenka controlled the match with authority and triumphed for the first time in New York, the third time in a major tournament after capturing the Australian Open last year and this year.

Jessica Pegula's run has ended

The tennis player from Minsk continues to underline herself as a devilish competitor who continues to sharpen her skills on the big stages, where she has already become a force. On the other hand, Jessica Pegula has come up short.

She showed a high level of skill by reaching the final of the tournament, and many believed that this could have been a great moment for her to crown herself a champion, but she did not execute as well as her rival.

The American is the number 6 player in the world, but she will have to wait for her time as the rest of the year still brings an opportunity for her to climb on the rankings but not as she would have wanted.