US Open 2023: Sabalenka Dominates While Alcaraz Recovers
Under the Arthur Ashe lights, the US Open’s reigning monarchs walked back into their kingdom on Wednesday night. One barely broke sweat. The other had to claw his way out of a hole.
Both left with their titles intact. For now.
Sabalenka ruthless, but tension never far away
Aryna Sabalenka opened the night session with the kind of performance that silences a stadium before it ever has a chance to roar.
World No. 1. Defending champion. Chasing a third straight US Open crown. With all that weight on her shoulders, she spent just 53 minutes on court dismantling 22-year-old debutant Polina Iatcenko, 6-1, 6-1.
This was not a contest. It was a statement.
Sabalenka tore through the Russian qualifier, breaking three times in each set. The only interruption to the onslaught came in the fourth game of the second set, when Iatcenko finally snatched a break of her own. It was a flicker, nothing more, in what quickly became a brutal baptism under the lights of tennis’ biggest stadium.
For Iatcenko, the night will sting, but the bigger picture matters. She came through qualifying, reached the second round of a major for the first time, and walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium on debut. There is something to build on.
Sabalenka does not have that luxury. She has no time for perspective.
She must win this title to have any chance of staying at No. 1. Even then, she needs help. Elena Rybakina, her closest rival, has to fall before the semi-finals if Sabalenka is to extend a reign that has already stretched to 99 consecutive weeks. The enormous cushion she held in March — a 3000‑point gulf — has been slashed to just 434 after a spring and summer slide littered with early exits and puzzling defeats.
That erosion has left its mark. You could see it, not in her forehand or her serve, but once the match was over.
The tension that didn’t surface on court spilled into her post-match press conference. When a journalist referenced her off-court promotional appearances in the week before the tournament and appeared to question her focus, Sabalenka bristled.
“What kind of question is that?” she shot back. “Just because I posted some activities with brands, you think that I've been partying and not training?”
Asked if she was “getting serious” now that the event had started, the sarcasm came quickly.
“Oh yeah, I wasn't serious before that. Next question.”
It was a sharp exchange, but it underlined where she is right now: playing for a title, playing for a ranking, playing against the noise around her.
On court, though, the numbers are clean. Two matches, two commanding wins, barely a scratch. She has also dodged what looked like a dangerous third-round showdown with two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova. Instead, she faces Kamilla Rakhimova, the Czech’s conqueror, on Friday.
Sabalenka’s tennis is back to looking brutal and efficient. Her grip on the top ranking is anything but.
Alcaraz jolted, then unleashed
If Sabalenka’s win felt inevitable from the first game, Carlos Alcaraz’s start against Jaime Faria carried a very different energy.
The defending champion walked out for only his second competitive singles match in more than four months. The rust showed. His timing was off, his rhythm missing, his footwork a half-beat late. Across the net, the World No. 72 sensed it immediately.
Faria stepped in. He broke in the seventh game of the opening set, held his nerve, and took a deserved lead. For a brief spell, Arthur Ashe started to imagine the upset.
That was as far as the dream went.
The turning point came early in the second set. Alcaraz faced a clutch of break points in the opening game. Lose that game, and the night might have spiralled. He didn’t. He dug in, held, and something inside him snapped back into place.
From there, the match flipped on its head.
The Spaniard reeled off the second set 6-0, suddenly dictating with the heavy, whipped forehand that has become his signature. The caution many expected after a delicate wrist injury never really materialised. He had insisted after his first-round win over Roman Safiullin that he had to swing freely, and he backed that up again.
“I know once I step on the court, I've just got to go for it every time. I've got to feel normal,” he said. “I have to hit like I was hitting before the injury. I'm feeling great. There is no reason to be afraid and not hitting normal.”
The third set brought a brief tug-of-war. An early exchange of breaks gave Faria a foothold, but Alcaraz struck again to reclaim control and closed it out 6-3. By the fourth, the pattern was fixed. The defending champion was in full flow, the Portuguese running out of answers. Alcaraz finished the job 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2.
“It was a tough match for me. I felt great in the first set, but I didn't take time and that cost me,” he admitted. “After that I tried to be focused, stay calm and think the good things will happen.”
They did. Yet the questions around him are not about a single night, but about the next ten days.
He has come through two rounds without any apparent physical setback. The wrist has held up. The explosiveness is there, even if his game still sits a notch below its most dazzling level. The draw, though, is about to stiffen.
A potential fourth-round clash with 20th seed Tommy Paul looms if Alcaraz first navigates dangerous Chinese talent Wu Yibing. Beyond that, the unknowns multiply: five-set marathons, back-to-back high-intensity matches, the grind on a body still easing its way back from injury.
For now, both defending champions have done what they needed to do. Sabalenka is crushing opponents while fighting the clock on her ranking. Alcaraz is rediscovering his magic, one set at a time.
The lights on Ashe will only get harsher from here. Who still looks like royalty when the pressure really bites?
