With Elena Rybakina, revenge is a dish best served cold. Cold like his celebration – all restrained – and his unfailing calm. Cold as the memory of his three-year-old defeat on the same stage at Rod Laver Arena in front of the same opponent. Defeated in the final of the Australian Open by Aryna Sabalenka in January 2023, the 26-year-old Kazakh almost experienced this unpleasant scenario again which left her hanging on in the first set of the match before abandoning the trophy to the Belarusian. But this Saturday in Melbourne, the world number 5 was able to turn the tide of the game to claim the second Grand Slam tournament of her career.
After complicated seasons, the 2022 Wimbledon champion tamed the boss of the WTA circuit in three sets, despite a late break and negative momentum at the start of the third round (6-4, 4-6, 6-4). She inflicted Sabalenka with her second loss in a row in the final of the Australian Open, her fourth defeat on the last step of a Major.
Only one set lost
The two players collided in the final without having lost a single set since the start of the tournament. This statistic was inevitably going to be contradicted for one of the two contenders for the title. “Saba” dropped the first set, “Ryba” lost the second. The favorite seemed to have definitely started the machine to distribute winning shots, but the challenger managed to find the “unforced error” button on her opponent’s racket. As at Roland-Garros against Coco Gauff last spring, Sabalenka let the match slip away.
While the Belarusian struggled to calm her frustration, Rybakina added a fatal dose with this final ace. The sixth of the game. Symbol of his ability to take the game into his own hands in key moments against an opponent who is used to directing the debates. The outgoing finalist led them to 3-0 in the last act, but the Moscow native lined up five games to completely reverse the balance of power. The Kazakh followed through with the idea to give Sabalenka her first defeat of the year.
Her record of 4 wins for 4 losses in Major finals is far from reflecting the ratio of the WTA leader over an entire season. “I hope we will play other finals together,” Rybakina told him as he received the cup. She had already won the WTA Finals last November. She completes her revenge in style with this Grand Slam.
