After Sabalenka’s triumph, her coach bursts into tears
The first time: Aryna Sabalenka won her first major tournament in Melbourne
What: REUTERS
Aryna Sabalenka has won a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. When the victory at the Australian Open was perfect, she thought of her late father and began to cry. Then her coach could no longer hold the water. Great emotions after a very special success.
Zinitially it was the player herself who gave free rein to her emotions. Aryna Sabalenka had just converted her fourth match point in the final of the Australian Open, winning a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in her career. After beating Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina 4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4 in the Rod Laver, the Belarusian fell to the ground and cried uncontrollably. She then sent tearful kisses to heaven. Her father passed away two years ago.
Great emotions after an exciting and sometimes high-class endgame, which then shifted to the stands. There sat Sabalenka’s coach Anton Dubrov, who after the first joint celebration in the box disappeared under a towel and cried for minutes.
“The craziest team on the tour”: Aryna Sabalenka and her trainers and supervisors
Credit: AFP/MARTIN KEEP
Rybakina also writes history
At her Grand Slam final premiere, the 24-year-old had given up the first round and thus only lost the first set this year. In the decisive third round she then managed the decisive break to make it 4:3, but started to wobble again when she served at 5:4 to win the tournament. After three missed match balls then the final salvation. Two hours and 28 minutes were played. In addition to the title and prize money equivalent to around 1.95 million euros, Sabalenka can also look forward to climbing to second place in the world rankings.
Russian-born Rybakina, who has been playing for Kazakhstan since 2018, is the nation’s first player to climb into the top ten and can console herself with prize money of 1.06 million euros. “I think we will face each other more often in finals this year and provide some thrillers,” Sabalenka said in her subsequent speech, in which she initially apologized for her nervousness and poor English.
Joy, pride, relief: Aryna Sabalenka after her triumph over Elena Rybakina
Credit: AFP/WILLIAM WEST
“Thanks to my team, the craziest team on the tour,” said the outspoken player, whose success made her the first to win a neutral-flagged major. Because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, Russians and Belarusians are only allowed to compete as neutral athletes in Melbourne. Sabalenka ended with a sentence that is usually reserved for the losers in the interviews: “I’ll come back even stronger next year,” predicted the winner and had to laugh about it herself.
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