Aryna Sabalenka defends Australian Open title in style

Aryna Sabalenka celebrates with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after beating Qinwen Zheng in the final on Saturday. Pic/Getty Images

Aryna Sabalenka clinched back-to-back Australian Open titles with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Zheng Qinwen on Saturday in a one-sided women's final. The No. 2-seeded Sabalenka broke Zheng's serve in the second game and took the first set in 33 minutes. She broke again to start the second set and maintained her dominance throughout against the No. 12-seeded Zheng.

"It's been an amazing couple of weeks. It's an unbelievable feeling right now," Sabalenka said in the trophy presentation. "As usual, my speech is going to be weird - it's not my super power."

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Only two things slowed down Sabalenka's progress Saturday to her second Grand Slam singles title. In the third game of the second set, with Zheng serving, the match was interrupted after an activist started yelling out. The match continued after the man was escorted out by security. Then, when she was serving for the match, Sabalenka had three championship points at 40-0 but missed two with wide or long forehands and another with Zheng's clever drop shot.

After giving Zheng a breakpoint chance, she bounced the ball away behind her in disgust but she recovered her composure to win the next three points.

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