Jessica Pegula has spotted change Aryna Sabalenka has made recently which has made her even harder to beat

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Jessica Pegula commented on the ways Aryna Sabalenka has improved her game.

The Belarusian enjoyed the best season of her career in 2024 which included two Grand Slam titles and claiming the World number one ranking.

Aryna Sabalenka was known primarily for her power both on her serve and groundstrokes, but she has since added variety to her game and is now stronger at crucial moments in matches.

Jessica Pegula, who has also improved her level in recent years, knows more than most how difficult it is to play against this improved version of the three-time Grand Slam champion.

What did Jessica Pegula say about how Aryna Sabalenka improved her game?

Sabalenka showed how dominant she can be with her performances across the 2024 season, especially on hard courts.

She claimed both the Australian Open and US Open titles, and also won the Cincinnati and Wuhan Open championships.

Pegula, who lost to Sabalenka in the final at Flushing Meadows, explains how she became a dominant figure in the women’s game and why it is so difficult to play against her.

“She’s got a great serve. Before she used to have a big serve, but now much more control, much more consistent,” she began. “That variable that you kind of hope would go off doesn’t really seem to go off as much anymore.

“I think her movement’s gotten a lot better. Obviously she’s a super power player, can take the racquet out of your hands sometimes.

“I’ve noticed she’s starting mixing in a lot more slices, dropshot, and coming to the net. She’s really, really gotten a lot better as a player. I think that’s why you’re seeing these results. She’s improved a lot in a lot of different aspects. Credit to her and her team.”

Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka both reach Australian Open third round

Pegula’s pursuit of a first Grand Slam title continued after she defeated Elise Mertens 6-4 6-2 at the Australian Open. The seventh seed recorded 24 winners on her way to beating the Belgian for the first time in her career.

Sabalenka was pushed by Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, but she did enough to win 6-3, 7-5 and push her winning run at the Melbourne Park to 16 successive matches.

At times Sabalenka’s game was known to crumble in the pressure moments, but she has worked very hard on eradicating or changing this aspect of her game, which Pegula found out the hard way in 2024.

“Before I felt like when I would play her, you would always tend to know something would kind of break down, whether it was her movement or her hands or her serve, whatever. Now that’s not happening as much,” said Pegula, who plays Olga Danilović in round three.

“If one thing breaks down, she has maybe something else in her tool shed that she can now start incorporating that you weren’t really expecting.

“I think she’s just become a really, really complete player, but also has that power game where she can be really aggressive and take the match from you, which I think is why she gets hot for a week or two. It can be really tough, I think she’s, yeah, just a really complete player right now.”