THE INCREDIBLE STATISTIC WHERE ARYNA SABALENKA HAS OUTPERFORMED MOST MEN AT THE US OPEN - INCLUDING CARLOS ALCARAZ, NOVAK DJOKOVIC AND JANNIK SINNER

The world No.2 powered her way into the US Open for second consecutive year
Sabalenka, 26, beat American Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 in the semi-finals
A statistic has shown how Sabalenka has outperformed male stars in New York

Aryna Sabalenka has stormed her way into the US Open final for the second consecutive year running.

The Belarusian tennis player will have to deal with a crowd in New York, who will be cheering for American star Jessica Pegula.

The world number two admitted that she struggled to deal with the crowd last year when she lost to American Coco Gauff in the final.

One interesting statistic has been revealed which may give her the upper hand in Saturday night's final.

According to the tournament's official tracking data, the World No. 2 has clocked an average forehand topspin speed of 80mph during her run to the final.

The speed ranks ranks faster than some of the top men tennis players including Carlos Alcaraz (79 mph), Jannik Sinner (78 mph) and Novak Djokovic (76 mph).

Reacting to the remarkable statistic after her quarter-final victory over Qinwen Zheng, Sabalenka admitted her surprise.

'I saw my stats on my forehand, and I actually can't believe it's that fast,' Sabalenka said.

'It felt kind of uncomfortable being at the top [of the list] and even hitting harder than guys. That's a really interesting stat.' she said.

This is not the first time Sabalenka has out classed her male counterparts and found herself on top of the stats leaderboard.

Earlier this year, in her first round match at the French Open against Erika Andreeva, she recorded a forehand top speed of 78 mph.

The impressive number even managed to outdo the men's number one Jannik Sinner shot as he could only manage a forehand top speed of 75mph.

The force of her forehand shot at Roland Garros earlier this year was rather surprising to everybody because the clay courts present at the French venue usually produce the slowest-paced forehands among all four major events.

Sabalenka booked her place in this year's final after overcoming a hostile crowd in the semi-finals when she came up against American Emma Navarro.

She powered her way through the match, earning a 6-3, 7-6 win over the American.

Sabalenka's groundstrokes have drawn comparisons to 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams, so it only seems right that today she will become the first woman since the American to feature in back-to-back finals at Flushing Meadows.

This time around she will be hoping she can get the win after a disappointing loss last year.

She enters the final as the overwhelming favourite and looks on course to claim her first US Open and third Grand Slam title.

2024-09-07T14:18:40Z dg43tfdfdgfd