Tennis: Sabalenka starts 2025 with a title, defeats Kudermetova in the final of the brisbane tennis tournament
Sabalenka will now try to win her third consecutive Australian Open title starting on january 12.
World number one and top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus has started the year 2025 with a title win. Sabalenka won the brisbane International tennis Tournament title by defeating Russia's Polina Kudermetova 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in a three-set battle. Sabalenka will now try to win her third consecutive Australian Open title starting on january 12. If two-time consecutive winner Sabalenka can do so, she will be the first player to achieve this feat after Switzerland's Martin Hingis. Hingis won the Australian Open three times in a row from 1997 to 1999. Last year in brisbane, Sabalenka lost to Kazakhstan's Elina Rybakina in the final.
Sabalenka started slowly against Kudermetova. She lost the first set by losing her serve twice. World number 107 Kudermetova kept Sabalenka in trouble with her powerful strokes from the baseline. However, Sabalenka dominated the next two sets with her fast groundstrokes. Sabalenka also said Kudermetova played great tennis. She deserved to play in the final and the way she is playing tennis, if she continues like this, she will soon be in the top 50. It was a great match and I am very happy to win it.
Czech Republic's Jiri Lehka won the men's singles title. When he was leading 4-1 in the final, American Reilly Opelka left the match due to a wrist injury. The six-foot 11-inch tall Opelka upset Djokovic in the quarterfinals and suffered a wrist problem while defeating Pericard in the semifinals. Opelka underwent hip surgery in 2022 and has recently returned to the tennis court. Lehka got a walkover in the semifinals against second seed Grigor Dimitrov when he was leading 6-4, 4-4.
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