But for a slight stumble early in the second set, when Sabalenka opened with a sloppy game and gave an early service break to Svitolina, this was close to perfect, high-octane tennis. The world No. 1 grabbed the lead by landing 71 percent of her first serves in the first set, a frightening number given how hard she hits the ball and how ofen she shoots at the lines.
And while that translated into winning just 61 percent of her first-serve points, thanks to some outstanding retrieving from Svitolina and some +1 errors, Sabalenka more than made up for it with what has become maybe the best second serve in the women’s game. She won 75 percent of her second-serve points, an absurdly high number. She kicked the ball out of Svitolina’s strike zone even in the cool conditions, and the Ukrainian’s knowledge that she had to jump on chances to attack whenever she could led to errors from her racket.
But this is mostly finding small details in something that unfolded evenly throughout. Sabalenka spent the match blasting away while mixing in just enough variety to keep her opponent guessing, finishing points at the net to prevent Svitolina from flipping them as she had done in beating Coco Gauff so comprehensively two nights earlier.
On this occasion, Svitolina was unable to find a way into a match, like a rock climber whose fingertips keep slipping out of the small cracks that might provide some stability.
Sabalenka is never flawless. She doesn’t have to be, as long as she accepts the certain errors that her game produces.
