hey everyone Gil gross here postmatch Arena sabalenka versus Jessica Pula US Open 2024 final if you're not here for spoilers click off the video Sabal Lanka wins major number three in her career and the second of 2024 she sweeps the hardcourt slams first to do that since anelie Kerber in 2016 and in today's Final she beats Jess Pula 7575 similar to the second set against Emma novaro she blows leads in both of those sets and recovers what an impressive run by Arena uh and you just start with the last two matches Pula Navaro similar play Styles similar assets that they bring to the tennis court they are phenomenal Pace absorbers great Defenders they're not going to get overwhelmed by Alan's ball speed as easily as most other players on tour will Pula I think brings a a little more offensive punch than Navaro in terms of uh the way she's able to to redirect off the ground you know hard flat down the line and all of that um bigger first serve than Navaro as well so it's kind of the next level up but to play two women who are such great Pace absorbers Americans hostile crowd inside Ash which he didn't deal well with last year in the final against Coco Golf and to take bruises in these matches Big Time blow those leads and still get through without really putting herself in any danger of losing obviously didn't drop a set in Nei match very impressive finish to an extraordinarily impressive run by saval Leno you can go back to the quarterfinals she she blows out jien kinw she actually had to be kind of a more consistent version of herself in that match because Jen was the one who wanted to to play really really big highrisk tennis Sabal link was like okay I can be solid to a certain extent I was Courtside watching sabalenka in the first week against Elisa Marans and I came away from that match thinking that's the best tennis I've seen anybody play in the first week that was my my feeling as I walked away from that one so she felt like the the best player in the tournament start to finish and I think at this point she deserves the title best hardcore player in the world no doubt about that this match against Pula also interesting because they're they're sort of opposite players when it comes to their strengths and weaknesses in this respect what I admire so much about Pula is that she's in the right position almost all the time if you look at her contact points they're so incredibly consistent when she can control it when she has a chance to achieve the ideal contact Point she almost always does because she's so organized and precise with her feet she is so on balance all the time in control of her body body her her finishes are incredibly consistent as well if you watch how she finishes all of her swings so she's machine likee in the way she executes her her groundstroke PR preparation and her groundstroke technique but she is working very hard to increase and improve the explosivity in her game the violence in her game sabalenka is the opposite at times her positioning isn't that good she gets off balance she gets out of control but she is the most explosive player in the world and it's not even close and it's unsettling and she takes the racket out of your hand so much I mean it's it's almost incredible how much when you're watching a match you're thinking that was too good that was was too good that was too good you know and you could only imagine what it feels like to play her but when it comes to like that battle right and the fact that it's going to be on sabala's racket a lot more because pagul is going to be more solid sabalenka is going to be less solid but is Arena going to miss enough to to let Pula in the match and I think increasingly the answer in sabalenka matches is no what I feel like she's improved big time other than controlling her emotions better and not letting those kind of rough patches in matches drag her down in a way where she's not able to you know pull it back together other than that I I think and I I feel like I might have talked about this uh already you know after the Australian Open final but I'll I'll hit it again she understands her targets now like she she did not she didn't used to understand the idea that because she hits so big she does not need to play close to the lines and she does not need to finish points in one shot that she has time to build the point to let her Pace do the talking to find easier opportunities inside the court where she can finish into big targets that understanding is there now and it's made her so much more difficult to beat so okay I know I've kind of talked in generalities so far as far as this particular match is concerned the 7575 win over Pula second serve Dynamics really dictated things if you look at the first serve they both won 65% of their first serve points and Pula made more first serves so if we're just looking at the first serve Effectiveness Pula was the better player problem was the second serve where Pula just couldn't protect it at all she was 6 for 28 21% points one with her second serve she averaged 80 miles per hour I wonder what the tour average is on the WTA I wish I knew but what I do know is that if you look at the the kick the level of kick on the serve the speed on the serve the placement on the serve it just wasn't good enough and and sabalenka was having her way with it Arena's really good at that you know it's not a problem that's unique to Jess at all I think a lot of players have a ton of issues hitting second serves to saal Lanka without getting attacked brutally but that that was a big deal now you know Pula really made a lot of first serves for most of the match her percentage was 69% over the course of the match but in these big five six games in both sets that's where she she did miss a lot of first serves and she ended up she ended up vulnerable because of the second serve just not being explosive enough another X Factor in this match that I didn't necessarily foresee is sabalenka using her touch in big moments and in a close match with fine margin this was a Difference Maker I don't know how you watch that first set and think that sabalenka could have won had she not Incorporated the drop shot had she not been comfortable moving forward and and finishing with short angle volleys as well as she did I mean the Drop shots were money Pula I don't think she was doing a great job of getting up to them I think she's quicker East West than she is north south and uh she she had some rough drop shot retrievals which was a little bit surprising to me I I think the redrop is is something that she could look at that maybe should have come into play a little bit more um and but sabalenka you know took certainly took advantage of that I only think she she lost one point on the drop shot in the first set which was a hideous forehand drop shot that she didn't make so every time she made it it seemed to win her the point and uh I I was really impressed with her volleys they were incredibly solid and total points at net uh for the match he ended up 18 for 23 I mean that's that's beautiful stuff right there and in the first set it was even better because yeah it was a better percentage in the first set than it was in the second so that was huge I mean three out of the last four points that sabalenka won in this Marathon dramatic 56 Pula service game at the end of the first set were Drop shots and drop volleys three out of the four and then the other was a pugula double fault so doesn't that tie nicely into the things we're talking about pugula second serve and sabalenka finding a little extra something especially when she was nervous with soft hands on the um on the Pula performance you know there there were a lot of positives this was a really entertaining match I mean I'll just say that I'll throw that out there uh pugula made a lot of returns she hit a lot of great first serves she was difficult to hit through as always uh she she did play a bit bigger than usual she rushed Sabal Lanka at times especially off the return of serve and as a result in patches you know sabalenka had some positioning positioning issues and when she did pugula capitalized with these big comebacks but I would say the negatives for pugula was uh at times the forehand got away from her when she needed to generate Pace the drop shot retrievals I've mentioned she could have competed a little better at the start of the second set she definitely seemed to have a let down emotionally and she went down three love there you felt like maybe she could have been a little bit tougher at that point in the match mentally and then just leaving her serve exposed in in some of those big games that's pretty much it sabalenka the injury like I want to zoom out a little bit the injury was probably a blessing in disguise for her at Wimbledon you never know but if she plays Wimbledon she plays the Olympics it's hard to see her being able to attack this Hardcore Season with the kind of energy that she ultimately was able to and she talked a lot she has talked a lot about not taking the time off that she probably should have in March when her ex-boyfriend uh tragically passed and that she kept going and she tried to play through it and that she was feeling you know very much emotionally drained at that point and it just seemed like the ability to take some time on the sidelines with the The Wimbledon withdrawal and not playing the Olympics it allowed her to hit what is her best surface you know with a with a certain freshness that her peers probably you know weren't able to say the same which was an advantage for her and um one that she took full I I'm trying to not use the word advantage again because I just said it but I got nothing she took full advantage of that Advantage so congratulations to Arena sabalenka and her fans hope you enjoyed don't forget to subscribe I'll see you next time