ROME -- As a rainstorm forced the closure of the roof on Arthur Ashe stadium, the press box buzzed with debates about who that favored. Would Aryna Sabalenka’s power flourish in what had become essentially an indoor competition? Or would the increased humidity slow the ball down, giving the relentless retrieving of Jessica Pegula the advantage? The general consensus was that Pegula needed something to compensate for her short stature - Jessica’s only 5’7” – against the six-foot tall Sabalenka. Every celebrity in the stands – the rockstars, the past champions, the fashion editors, the Formula I drivers, the movie stars – all had an opinion. The fact that Pegula is an American and that her father is a billionaire owner of the Buffalo Bills contributed to her fan base. Sabalenka, a Belarusian, had a blank next to her nationality on the scoreboard. Two years ago as Russia invaded Ukraine, its players along with those of its allies, were banned from competing at Grand Slam tournaments. In a compromise agreement, Russians and their allies could play but their nationality, known to everyone, couldn’t be mentioned.

 After more palaver, the match finally started, and Sabalenka immediately broke Pegula’s serve. She had trouble, however, holding her own. Sabalenka is said to hit the fastest groundstrokes on the women’s tour. Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ former coach, claims that Sabalenka actually hits a faster ball than many of the top men. This, he explained, was due to her flat strokes. It might have helped her to use topspin and keep more balls in play. But the Belarusian insisted on blasting every ball as if it were match point. Many of her shots sailed long or wide. She served for the first set at 5-3, but let J-peg, as journalists have begun to call Pegula, off the hook. The American knotted the score at 5-5 and struggled to reach a tie-break. Every point felt like a match in itself. Scrambling around, barely keeping the ball alive, she reached ad point several times only to have Sabalenka slug a winner, each one punctuated by a grunt of exertion. Ultimately the Belarusian took the first set 7-5.

  When Sabalenka broke to 2-0 in the second set, Pegula appeared deflated. Yet she kept grinding and eventually gained traction. She not only broke back, she went up a break to lead 5-3. Sabalenka managed to hold to 4-5. Overall, she cracked 41 clean winners. Pegula had a mere 17. Still, she served for the second set and had her chances to even the match. Finally, however, Sabalenka’s power, erratic though it was, prevailed.  As she raised her fists in triumph, the crowd saw the fierce tiger tattooed to her forearm. After shaking hands with Jessica Pegula, she climbed into the stands to kiss members of her entourage, which included a bearded man who had a matching tattoo of a tiger on his bald pate, fitness trainer Jason Stacy. Sabalenka planted a kiss on it too. Her exuberant joy certainly looked genuine. The same can’t be said of the tattoo on the bald man’s head.