Just 1 more day of tennis is left at this years Aussie Open after the ladies final was played yesterday. The ladies final was between defending champion and number 2 seed, Sabalenka and 12th seeded, Zheng who was playing her very first grand slam final.

It was always going to be a tough ask for Zheng to be very competitive in this final due to not playing a high ranked player throughout the tournament as well as the final being her very first grand slam final. The match started the way many did not want it to start. Sabalenka winning the first 2 games dropping just 1 point in the process. However things got interesting in the 3rd game when Sabalenka found herself down 0-40. Sadly however for the viewers Zheng was unable to convert and it was 3-0 already. Zheng was then on the board with an impressive love hold to make the score 3-1. Both players held comfortably until the score was 5-2. Zheng then had to battle hard from 0-40 down to force Sabalenka to serve out the opening set at 5-3. Sabalenka did so and was 1 set away from defending her title. The 2nd set again started the worst possible way for Zheng as she was broken in the opening game. Sabalenka then held to make it 2-0 in the 2nd set. Zheng was then broken again in the 5th game and the match was getting away from her quickly with the score being 4-1 in the 2nd set. Sabalenka made it 5-1 and Zheng once again forced her to serve it out at 5-2. It looked like an easy service hold at 40-0 but Sabalenka failed to convert those 3 match points. She then had to save a break point before winning her 5th match point to defend her Australian Open title. She did not drop a set at this years Aussie Open. Well done to her, the perfect way to start the year.

Onto the fantasy leaderboard and there was no change from 1 to 11. Well done to all who is in yellow who picked Sabalenka. She was the best lady to pick and scored 66 points throughout the tournament. Well done to ‘Tennis Addicts’ our leader for picking the best lady side out of all 80 teams. Enjoy the mens final. With some people having both finalists and some people having just 1 finalist, there will be changes in the leaderboard after day 15. The last day of the Aussie Open 2024.

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a fantasy organiser.