Svitolina has always faced tough fights against Sabalenka, losing their last five meetings.

Sabalenka’s stats (29 winners, 15 unforced errors, just 11 points conceded on serve) showed how much she dominated play, but what was more impressive was her mental focus.

A charming but occasionally volatile figure on the court, Sabalenka had emotional outbursts at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros last year.

This year, with Svitolina trailing 2-1 in the first set, Sabalenka was ordered to interfere by referee Louise Azemar-Ensel for moaning during a rally.

The interference rule is intended to prevent players from interfering with an opponent’s ability to shoot by shouting, making noise, or knocking the ball out of the pocket.

Enzel told Sabalenka that the ball “didn’t make a normal sound” when she hit it, before giving Svitolina the point.

Sabalenka asked for a video review, but the players could not hear the audio and could only watch as Entzel played the footage and did not change her decision.

The Belarusian player was unimpressed and gave a sarcastic thumbs up to the referee and a few choice words to his team, but was able to quickly reset his mood.

Sabalenka then broke Svitolina’s serve and won four of the next five games to take the first set.

After a bad service game forced Svitolina to break her in the second set, Sabalenka glared at her team, stomped her foot on her seat and broke back at her first chance.

She saved another break point en route to a 5-2 lead and sealed the victory with a forehand winner.