10 incredible things Aryna Sabalenka achieved by winning this year's US Open

Aryna Sabalenka had a fantastic fortnight in Flushing Meadows this year, not only winning her first Grand Slam title of the year, but also her second US Open title, and the fourth Grand Slam title of her career.

And it doesn't end there—here are 10 more things she achieved:

She's the first woman to win back-to-back US Opens since Serena Williams, who won three straight from 2012 to 2014. And having beaten Jessica Pegula in last year's final, 7-5, 7-5, and Amanda Anisimova in this year's final, 6-3, 7-6 (3), she's the first woman to win back-to-back US Open finals in straight sets since Kim Clijsters in 2009 and 2010.

She's now 39-2 at hard-court majors since the start of 2023, and 80-9 in sets in those matches. Her only two losses at hard-court majors in that span came to Coco Gauff in the 2023 US Open final, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, and to Madison Keys in the 2025 Australian Open final, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

She's just the third woman ever to win her first four Grand Slam titles on hard courts. She won the Australian Open in 2023, the Australian Open and the US Open in 2024, and now the US Open in 2025. Clijsters (three US Opens and an Australian Open) and Naomi Osaka (two of each) also won their first four major titles on this surface.

She has still never had a losing record in Grand Slam finals. She's been even before—1-1 after losing her second one, and 3-3 after losing two earlier this year at the Australian Open and Roland Garros—but with her latest victory in New York she's now 4-3 in major title matches.

She avenged her loss at the last major, Wimbledon. Not only had Anisimova beaten her in a grueling three-setter in the semifinals at the All England Club, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, but the American led their head-to-head going into the US Open final, 6-3, which also included wins at the other two majors, the Australian Open and Roland Garros, in 2019. But Sabalenka made sure that pattern didn't continue, at least for now.

Her victory in the final was the 50th Top 10 win of her career. She got her 49th Top 10 win in the semifinals, beating Pegula, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, then her 50th in the final. She's now 10-3 against the elite this year.

Her victory in the final was also her 100th career win at a Grand Slam. She's just the third player in the Open Era, woman or man, to hit that milestone in a major final, after Andy Murray (in the 2012 US Open final) and Iga Swiatek (in the 2025 Wimbledon final... against Anisimova!)

She surpassed $40 million in career prize money. She went into the US Open with $37,300,521, and with her $5,000,000 winner's cheque, she jumped to $42,300,521. She's the fifth woman in WTA history to surpass $40 million after the Williams sisters, Simona Halep and Swiatek.

By winning three tie-breaks en route to the title in Flushing Meadows, she's now an incredible 21-1 in tie-breaks this year. She continues to extend her record for most tie-breaks won by a woman in a single season in the Open Era—the previous record was 16.

She's also won her last 19 tie-breaks in a row. That also extends her women's Open Era record—before this, Sloane Stephens held the previous record, winning 14 in a row between 2015 and 2016.

And finally, she now has the most wins AND most titles for a woman this year. She's been the leader on the women's tour for wins since the spring (she's now up to 56) but going into the US Open she was tied with Pegula for most titles on the women's tour, with three—but she now breaks that tie with the American with her fourth of the year.

With more wins and titles than any other woman this year and deep finishes at all of the big events she didn't win, Sabalenka has built up quite the lead on the Race to the WTA Finals—she's now over 2,000 points ahead of second place on those year-to-date-standings.

Unless one of her close challengers makes a big push this fall, Sabalenka could be closing in on another year-end No. 1 finish...