The world No.2 had also rebounded through a troubling mid-season combination of personal heartache, illness in her Roland Garros quarterfinal defeat to Mirra Andreeva and a shoulder injury, which ruled her out of Wimbledon.

Like Sinner, she too missed the Olympics, and it could well have been a blessing in disguise as both headed to North America arguably fresher.

They picked up their first Cincinnati Masters/WTA 1000 trophy, respectively, which marked the second straight year both champions in Ohio then went all the way in New York after Coco Gauff and Djokovic.

Sabalenka, too, was in good company as just the fifth woman after Steffi Graf and Monica Seles, both twice, Martina Hingis and Angelique Kerber to complete the hard-court double since 1988.

“After I lost my father, it’s always been my goal to put our family name in the history of tennis,” she said. “Every time I see my name on that trophy, I’m so proud of myself, I’m proud of my family that they never gave up on my dream and that they were doing everything they could to keep me going.

“So, I had this opportunity in life. It really means a lot. Yeah, it’s been always my dream. I still kind of cannot believe that I was able to achieve, like me with my team, we were able to achieve so much already.”