Aryna Sabalenka Dominates in US Open Third Round

NEW YORK – Under the lights and utterly unbothered, Aryna Sabalenka reminded Flushing Meadows why it has become her personal playground.

The top seed stormed into the US Open third round on Wednesday night with a ruthless 6-1, 6-1 dismantling of Russian qualifier Polina Iatcenko, needing barely over an hour to underline her status as the woman to beat in New York.

This was not a contest. It was a statement.

Sabalenka, a four-time Grand Slam champion and the winner in New York the past two years, came out swinging and never eased off. She tore into Iatcenko’s second serves, stepped inside the baseline at every opportunity and slapped winners at will, dragging the 22-year-old into rallies she simply couldn’t survive.

Within minutes, the scoreboard told the story: 5-0 Sabalenka. Iatcenko, playing in her first Grand Slam main draw, finally got on the board, but the opening set was gone almost as soon as it had begun. Sabalenka dropped just four points on serve in that first set, a cold, efficient performance that left no room for nerves or doubt.

The night session energy fed her. “Night atmosphere is always the best atmosphere,” she said afterwards, and it showed. She looked at home, relaxed between points, brutal during them.

Iatcenko, ranked 160th, did manage a brief flicker of resistance in the second set, breaking Sabalenka once to claim what would be her only game of the set. The response was immediate and merciless. Sabalenka tightened the screws, reeled off the next three games, and closed the match with the air of a player finishing a routine training block rather than a Grand Slam assignment.

That victory marked Sabalenka’s 15th straight win at Flushing Meadows, a streak that stretches back over two title runs and now into a third campaign.

Yet it comes after a stuttering middle stretch of the season, with disappointing exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and underwhelming hard-court tune-ups.

Those scars, she insists, have hardened her.

She told reporters she feels “way stronger than I was in the middle of the season” mentally, and said her body has come around too. The work, she stressed, has been done. The shift now is in how she carries it.

“I’m happy with my level. I’ve been working really hard, but I feel like I’m moving away from trying to be perfect on court,” she said. “I know that you cannot be perfect, and I’m just trying to work with what I have right now.”

That mindset fits the New York grind. Flushing Meadows rarely rewards the illusion of perfection; it rewards resilience, aggression, and the willingness to ride the chaos. On this evidence, Sabalenka has all three humming again.

Next up is 92nd-ranked Kamilla Rakhhimova of Uzbekistan in the third round, another player who will walk into Arthur Ashe Stadium knowing exactly what Sabalenka just did to a fellow outsider.