After annihilating Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-1 in her first WTA Finals match, Sabalenka continued with her strong play in Riyadh after also taking the opening set against Pegula 6-4. But then, the troubles started for the world No. 1, who lost her serve twice during the second set and saw her match against the American go to a decider.

Aryna Sabalenka celebrates winning the coveted 'top-ranked' WTA trophy for the second year in a row, wearing a glam black bra, blazer, trousers and heels.

For years, Sabalenka had too much pace and offense for Pegula to handle. Now the American, one of the WTA’s best counter-punchers and power-absorbers, had finally found a way to use Sabalenka’s pace against her.

Aryna Sabalenka was close to suffering back-to-back defeats to Jessica Pegula before pulling off a third-set comeback to beat the world No. 5 6-4 2-6 6-4 and improve to 2-0 at the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

In her second group-stage match at the WTA Finals, Sabalenka plays against Pegula, who defeated Coco Gauff on Sunday. It will be a chance for the top-ranked Belarusian to get her revenge for the recent Wuhan semifinal loss.

Aryna Sabalenka has officially broken the highest single-season prize money record by a female player after her opening win at the 2025 WTA Finals. Sabalenka kicked off her campaign at the year-end championships with a dominant 6-3 6-1 win over Jasmine Paolini to take control of the Stefanie Graf Group.