Is it ‘Tiger’ Sabalenka or ‘Queen’ Jeong Chin-won? Australian Open Final on the 27th
Sabalenka's second consecutive win... Chung Chin-won is aiming for the first Chinese win in 10 years.
Both are aggressive with strong serves, and Sabalenka has the edge in the opponent's record.
The women's singles final of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament (total prize money: 86.5 million Australian dollars, approximately 76.1 billion won) between Arina Sabalenka (2nd, Belarus) and Chung Chin-won (15th, China) will be held at 5:30 pm on the 27th (Korea) Time) It takes place in Melbourne, Australia.
Sabalenka will attempt to become Australian Open champion for the second year in a row, following her last year. 파워볼게임
Jeong Chin-won, who reached the final of a major tournament for the first time in her life, aims to become the first Chinese player to win a major tournament singles title in 10 years since Li Na (China) at the 2014 Australian Open.
The two are players who practice ‘power tennis’ side by side.
Sabalenka, who is 182cm tall, is a ‘big hitter’ with a sturdy physique with broad shoulders and a powerful serve and forehand.
Sabalenka ranked third among female players with the highest serve speed of 195 km/h in this tournament, and was one of three players who exceeded 400 serve aces on the Women's Professional Tennis (WTA) tour last season.
With her prodigious attacking nature, as can be inferred from the tiger tattoo on her arm, she did not drop a single set in her six matches in this tournament until she reached the semifinals.
In the semifinals held on the 25th, she defeated Coco Gough (4th place, USA) 2-0 (7-6 <7-2> 6-4), allowing more than 4 games in a set in 5 matches.
She won every game so lopsidedly that she had never done it before.
If Sabalenka wins this tournament, she will achieve her second consecutive Australian Open women's singles title 11 years after Viktoria Azaranka (22nd, Belarus) in 2012 and 2013.
In addition, Sabalenka, born in 1998, becomes the first active player to win two singles major tournaments before the age of 26, along with Iga Sibiong Tek (No. 1, Poland).
Some have pointed out that her stability is low due to her somewhat fiery personality, but she has been consistent enough to have made the semifinals or higher in the last six major tournaments in a row, starting from the 2022 US Open.
Against this, Jeong Chin-won, born in 2002, is also showing his formidable power by scoring 48 serve aces in this tournament, taking first place.
There is a big difference from the 25 of serve ace 2nd place Alicia Parks (82nd, USA).
Sabalenka is in third place with 24.
However, the highest speed of her serve was 186 km by Jeong Chin-won, so she was not in the top 20.
As was the case in the semifinal match against Dayana Yastremska (93rd, Ukraine) on the 25th, the enthusiastic support of many Chinese fans living in Australia is expected to be a great help to Chung Chin-won in the final on the 27th.
During the tournament, she was visiting Australia and met 2014 Australian Open champion Lina in person and received some encouragement.
There was some luck in reaching the finals of this competition.
In terms of the bracket, there was a high possibility of meeting Elena Rybakina (3rd place, Kazakhstan) and Jessica Pegula (5th place, USA) midway, but Rybakina and Pegula were both eliminated early, so they made it to the finals without having to face a seeded player once. Came up.
Sabalenka faced seeded players three times in the six matches until the semifinals, two of which were players ranked within the top 10.
Jeong Qin-won, nicknamed 'Queen' due to her English spelling 'Qin', which corresponds to 'Qin' in her name, has already made her mark on the world, regardless of whether she is crowned 'Major Queen' in this competition.
Confirmed entry into the top 10 in the rankings.
The two met once in the quarterfinals of the US Open last year, and Sabalenka won 2-0 (6-1 6-4).
Sabalenka expressed confidence, saying, “When you reach a major final for the first time, there is a lot of mental pressure,” and added, “Chung Chin-won is a great player whose forehand is a particularly powerful weapon.”
He expressed his composure, saying, “It won’t be easy to defend the title, but if we don’t win this year, we can (win) next year.”
Chin-Won Jeong said, “Arina Sabalenka is the strongest player on the current tour in terms of serve, forehand, and backhand.”
He added, “No matter who the opponent is, it is a big challenge for me, and the winner or loser will be determined by who can overcome the pressure and play their tennis better.”