Alcaraz Beats Sinner, Sabalenka Defeats Anisimova in US Open Finals

The US Open Finals took place this weekend, with Carlos Alcaraz defeating Jannik Sinner in the Men's Final and Aryna Sabalenka beating Amanda Anisimova in the Women's Final.

The US Open is one of four major tennis tournaments each year, with the other three being the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon.

This year, Italy's Jannik Sinner and Spain's Carlos Alcaraz met three times in major finals, with Alcaraz winning the French Open in an epic, five-and-a-half hour final and Sinner taking home the Wimbledon trophy in four sets.

Then, at the US Open Final yesterday afternoon, Alcaraz and Sinner faced off again, with Alcaraz taking a comfortable win in four sets. The match begun with Alcaraz winning the first set 6-2 before Sinner came back in the second set, 6-3. Amazingly, that was the only set that the Spaniard lost in the entire tournament, displaying his incredible current form. Alcaraz went on to win the next two sets 6-1 6-4, completing his dominant win– in total, he racked up 10 aces, no double faults, and 42 winners throughout the two-and-a-half hour final, contrasted to Sinner's 2 aces, 4 double faults, and 21 winners.

With yesterday's victory, Alcaraz now moves up to become the world No. 1 once again– in 2022, Alcaraz rose up to No. 1 after winning the US Open at the age of 19, becoming the youngest male player to ever reach the rank. Alcaraz also becomes the first-ever player to win multiple grand slams on all three surfaces – hard court, clay, and grass – before the age of 23.

Meanwhile, in the Women's Final, Belarus' Sabalenka battled against the home favorite, Anisimova, beating her opponent in straight sets, 6-3 7-6 (3). With the win, Sabalenka defended her title and became the first woman to win back-to-back US Open Finals since Serena Williams won three straight from 2012 to 2014.

Anisimova, on the other hand, reached her second consecutive grand slam final after losing out to Poland's Iga Świątek at Wimbledon in July. However, her 29 unforced errors – Sabalenka had just four – heavily contributed to her significant loss.

An update has been released on the Hyundai plant arrests in the US state of Georgia, with South Korea confirming that they will bring 300 of the workers back home.

The news comes just after a massive immigration raid on the plant, located just outside the city of Savannah, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers shut down operations and arrested 475 people thought to be illegal immigrants. Read more into the initial arrests here.

While some had legally traveled to the US, South Korea has confirmed that they will bring 300 of the detained workers home following their release by ICE. This is because many of the workers had illegally crossed the border to enter the US, entered legally but had an expired visa, or entered using a visa that did not allow for maintaining a job.

Fact of the Day (The Fact Site): Over 50% of Niger's population is under the age of 16, making it the country with the lowest median age in the entire world. This is primarily due to the nation's incredibly high fertility rate, with an average of 6.89 kids per mother.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure. (George Eliot)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Behest (noun, bih-HEST) - Behest can refer either to an authoritative order or an urgent prompting.

In a Sentence: The committee met again at the senator’s behest.

Image credit to BBC