Elena Rybakina (5th place, Kazakhstan) defeated Arina Sabalenka (Belarus), the world’s No. 1 tennis women’s singles, and won her first Australian Open title.
Rybakina won the women’s singles final of the 2026 Australian Open (total prize money of 111.5 million Australian dollars) held in Melbourne, Australia on the 31st of last month (Korean time), defeating Sabalenka 2-1 (6-4 4-6 6-4) after a fierce battle of 2 hours and 18 minutes.
This is the first time Rivakina has reached the top of the Australian Open. He previously advanced to the finals of the 2023 Australian Open, but was blocked by Sabalenka and had to be satisfied with second place. But this time was different.
In this tournament, Rybakina showed off her skills by defeating powerhouses such as Iga Sibiontech (2nd place, Poland) and Jessica Pegula (6th place, USA) in succession.
Rybakina won the 2022 Wimbledon tournament. And he experienced his second major championship in four years.
Rivakina also won the prize money for winning this competition (4.15 million Australian dollars, approximately 4.2 billion Korean Won). The world ranking is also expected to rise from 4th to 3rd.
Rybakina defeated Sabalenka 2-0 in the finals of the Women’s Professional Tennis (WTA) Finals last year. At that time, the opponent’s record was 6 wins and 8 losses, and this time, they added one win to make it 7 wins and 8 losses.
On the other hand, Sabalenka unfortunately collapsed in the third set, finishing in second place for the second year in a row. Sabalenka is the 2023 and 2024 Australian Open winner. Last year, she lost 1-2 in the finals to Madison Keys (USA, 9th place), who had never won a major tournament at the time. This time, he again attempted to win his 5th major championship, but was blocked by Rivakina’s wall.
Rybakina succeeded in breaking in the first game of the first set and continued to take the lead, winning 6-4. In the second set, the match was tied at 4-4, but in the end, Sabalenka showed her courage and won, bringing the set score to 1-1.
In the end, the game was decided in the third set. Rybakina, who gave up the first serve game, went from being down 1-3 to winning 4 games and overturning the game to 4-3. And with a 5-4 lead and a 30-30 lead, he successfully served serve aces one after another and lifted the championship trophy.
On this day, Rybakina marked the serve ace six times and Sabalenka marked the serve ace five times. Also, the probability of winning the game when the first serve was successful was almost similar at 76% and 75%. Sabalenka recorded 35 winners, more than Rybakina (28), and won by breaking three times.
After winning, Rivakina said, “I was able to win thanks to the support of the fans. Thank you for creating a great atmosphere. I am really happy.”
