(Melbourne) Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, 5e world, won the Australian Open on Saturday, her first Grand Slam title, beating the Kazakh and 25e World Cup Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
With this title, Sabalenka (24) will regain second place in the world on Monday, the best ranking of her career. Rybakina, 23 and Wimbledon champion last year without WTA points distributed, will go up to 10e world rank, also his highest ranking.
Sabalenka played a very risky game that took a while to set up, but ended up paying on her fourth match point in a game where Rybakina had a chance to redo her late break.
PHOTO MARK BAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aryna Sabalenka, left, and Elena Rybakina
Once Rybakina’s final ball bounced out of bounds, Sabalenka lay crying alone on the court. When she got up, Rybakina was already there to take her in her arms.
Belarus remained on three knockout stages in Melbourne in the last three editions.
She had already played three Grand Slam semi-finals (Wimbledon 2021, United States Open 2021 and 2022) without ever reaching the final.
But she had already played and won a final at the Australian Open, in 2021 in doubles, associated with the Belgian Elise Mertens.
For his part, Rybakina had never passed the third round in three appearances so far at the Australian Major.
She had reached her best ranking in January 2022 at 12e world rank. His victory last year at Wimbledon had brought him no points: the WTA and the ATP had decided to deprive the Major on grass of ranking points for his refusal to accept Russian and Belarusian players in retaliation for the war in Ukraine.