Aryna Sabalenka won the 2023 Australian Open title 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 Defeated defending Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina. The 24-year-old Sabalenka captured her first career Grand Slam with the win after making the US Open semifinals the past two seasons and the Wimbledon semifinals in 2021.
Sabalenka has now won 11 matches in a row. She has dominated this year as she reached the semifinal round without dropping a single set, and won 20 consecutive sets in her first major final.
After taking the first set, Rybakina could not hold on in a back-and-forth match, but managed to save championship points three times in the final set, before a forehand went long for Sabalenka to clinch the championship.
In a two-hour and 28-minute seesaw battle, both players ran out winners (51–31) and aces (17–9) with Sabalenka taking out Rybkina. Both players also won 71 percent of their first serve points.
“I want to [say] Congratulations to Elena for an incredible two weeks. You are such a great player and of course we are going to play many more finals … hopefully in a Grand Slam final,” Sabalenka said after the match of her opponent, who claimed her first Grand Slam singles title. Did. Last year at Wimbledon.
2023 is now the eighth consecutive season where the WTA has had a Grand Slam singles winner for the first time, and four of the last eight Slams – Barbora Krejčkova 2021 French Open, Emma Radukanu 2021 US Open, Rybakania 2022 Wimbledon and Sabalenka 2023 Australian Open – won for the first time. Grand Slam is captured by the champion.
Sabalenka will jump three places to equal her career-high ranking of No. 2 in the WTA rankings – which she reached on August 23, 2021.
While the Belarus-born player competed individually and without a national flag due to Australian Open rules established after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sabalenka became the second Belarusian player to win a singles Grand Slam championship after two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka. Gone. (2012, 2013) who lost to Rybkina in the semifinals of the 2023 Australian Open.
Sabalenka has now won four out of five matches in her all-time series against Rybakina. Their only meeting at a Grand Slam was in the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2021.
The top players on the WTA Tour next head to the Middle East for the WTA 500 Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, the WTA 500 Qatar Total Energy Open and the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Grand Slam Season Begins Again
