Under the New York lights, Aryna Sabalenka looks right at home again.
The top seed tore through Russian qualifier Polina Iatcenko 6-1, 6-1 on Wednesday night, a ruthless statement that the defending US Open champion has no intention of loosening her grip on Flushing Meadows.
This was a mismatch from the opening game. Sabalenka, a four-time Grand Slam champion and two-time reigning winner in New York, unloaded on the ball from both wings, ripping winners almost at will. Iatcenko, a 22-year-old making her debut in a Grand Slam main draw, barely had time to settle before the scoreboard ran away from her.
Within minutes, it was 5-0.
Ranked 160 in the world, Iatcenko finally got on the board late in the first set, but the damage had long been done. Sabalenka dropped just four points on serve in that opener, controlling her service games with the kind of authority that has defined her best tennis on hard courts.
The pattern barely shifted in the second set. Sabalenka’s power and depth pinned Iatcenko behind the baseline, the qualifier scrambling just to stay in rallies. The Belarusian briefly faltered, surrendering a single service game that gave Iatcenko her lone game of the set, but any hint of a wobble vanished instantly. Sabalenka responded by reeling off the next three games, slamming the door on any idea of resistance.
It was her 15th consecutive victory at Flushing Meadows, a streak that underlines how sharply her game fits this stage, this surface, this city.
“Night atmosphere is always the best atmosphere,” Sabalenka said afterward, and it showed.
Under the lights, with the crowd humming, she played with a looseness and freedom that have not always been present this season.
The past few months have not been kind to her standards. Early exits and “disappointing losses” at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, combined with flat showings at the hard-court lead-up events, raised questions about whether the world No. 1 could flick the switch in time for New York.
She insists she has.
Having booked her place in the third round, Sabalenka told reporters she feels mentally “way stronger than I was in the middle of the season” and physically refreshed. The perfectionist edge that sometimes tightens her game has softened.
“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.”
What she has right now still looks more than enough to trouble anyone in the draw.
Next up is Kamilla Rakhhimova, the world No. 92 from Uzbekistan, in the third round. Another opportunity for Sabalenka to test this new, less rigid mindset against the familiar roar of a New York night that increasingly feels like her natural territory.
