Aryna Sabalenka

MELBOURNE — Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina reached her second final in the past three Grand Slam tournaments by beating Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (4), ...

Elena Rybakina powered her way past two-time champion Victoria Azarenka to reach the Australian Open final, winning 7-6 6-3 in just over an hour and 40 ...

I couldn’t play aggressive tennis, the ball wasn’t going as much, but I tried my best to win.” I’m super happy to be in the final and play one more time here. Rybakina has beaten former grand slam champions in consecutive matches to reach this stage – world No. The world No. Rybakina found her first serve again in the second set and broke Azarenka twice to take a commanding 5-2 lead and give herself a chance to serve for the match. However, that would be as good as it would get for Linette in the second as Sabalenka maintained the level she found in the tie break to win four straight games and race into a 4-1 lead. When everything clicks, the Russian-born Kazakh’s game is almost unstoppable and a marvel to watch. I’ll fight and, hopefully, I’m going to win.” “I’m super happy and proud, with my team also because without them it would be difficult to be here,” Rybakina said in her post-match interview. However, the 2022 Wimbledon winner perhaps started to feel the magnitude of the occasion for the first time, as her first serve all of a sudden deserted her to allow Azarenka to break back at the first time of asking and quickly level the scores at 5-5. We’ll see how it’s going to go – for sure, I’ll try my best. The momentum swung back and forth in the opening set and the more experienced Azarenka looked as though she had the upper hand going into the tie break, but Rybakina found her serve when she needed it most to take a crucial lead.

MELBOURNE, Australia — It will be strength against strength and power against power in the Australian Open women's singles final on Saturday.

She has beaten three straight Grand Slam singles champions to reach this final: Iga Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Azarenka, a 33-year-old Belarusian who won the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013. Sabalenka is seeded fifth and Rybakina 22nd, but that does not tell the whole tale. And yet her inconsistency and combustibility have, until now, kept her from reaching the top. But after losing her first three Grand Slam singles semifinals, she is now into her first final. “It was great tennis from me in the tiebreak.” The outcomes were strong. Both have lifted their games to new levels since then. The year’s first Grand Slam event runs from Jan. Rybakina, 23, is a quiet intimidator: her big serves and rolling, deep groundstrokes applying constant pressure. Rybakina is self-contained and difficult to read, maintaining an even keel throughout her matches. In this Australian Open, 16 to Jan.

In two similar semi-finals, Wimbledon champion Rybakina saw off Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (4) 6-3 before Sabalenka reached her first grand slam singles final with a ...

She felt the benefit of having been in a semi-final before, saying: “I think because I knew what to expect. I’m proud of myself how I fought and I tried, but tennis-wise I felt like it just wasn’t there, especially in the important moments.” “There is still one more match to go,” said the Belarusian, who is yet to drop a set in 10 matches in 2023. “It’s good that I kind of break through in the semi-finals, but there is one more match to go. I’m super happy to be in the final and ready to give everything I have left in one day.” “I’m happy, at the same time tired,” said Rybakina.

The women's 2023 Australian Open final is set: Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will take on Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan after the two each won their semifinal ...

Elena Rybakina advanced to the Australian Open finals with a win over Victoria Azarenka. She will face Aryna Sabalenka, who beat Magda Linette in the ...

Sure, Rybakina again faltered for a bit while trying to serve out the victory at 5-2. A mistake-filled tiebreaker ended with Azarenka pushing a forehand wide to cap an 11-shot exchange, and the set belonged to Rybakina. 1 and a three-time runner-up at the U.S. Rybakina encountered similar issues and her occasional inconsistency was encapsulated by the very first game. Rybakina might be seeded just 22nd in Melbourne, and ranked just 25th, but those numbers are rather misleading and not indicative at all of her talent and form. She delivered serves at up to 117 mph and stinging groundstrokes that she used to close points seemingly at will on Thursday. “Kind of hard to digest,” Azarenka said. It wasn’t the case that each and every shot Sabalenka hit landed right on a line, but it must have seemed that way to Linette. Azarenka lost the mark on her strokes, for the most part, making things smoother for Rybakina, while Sabalenka raced to a 6-0 lead in hers. “For sure, they’re very experienced players,” said Rybakina, whose parents and sister have been in town throughout the Australian Open. “In the tiebreaker, I really found my rhythm,” Sabalenka said. Sabalenka is far less cautious, though, and her penchant for high-risk, high-reward play was evident against Linette, who had never been past the third round in 29 appearances at majors.

Aryna Sabalenka reached her first grand-slam final with an impressive 7-6 (1), 6-2 victory over Magda Linette.

“She’s playing great tennis, super aggressive and she already got one grand slam so she has kind of had this experience playing the final. But Sabalenka held her nerve and found her range, breaking back to 2-2 before playing game for game until the tie-break. The Pole’s defensive skills absorbed much of the barrage and her footwork allowed her to redirect what she had soaked up to the desired location, particularly from her backhand. In the bowels of Rod Laver Arena, Sabalenka completed warm-up drills with a swiss ball and the look of a player loose and unperturbed about the moment of truth that awaited. It might have been that she had won all 18 sets she had played in 2023 and was not about to drop one now. The first-set tie-break said it all – Magda Linette lost it 7-1 and she had not done anything wrong.

Sabalenka, who is ranked No. 5 in the world, defeated her Polish counterpart in a game that lasted just over one hour and 30 minutes and will now face Elena ...

It was great tennis from me on the tie-break. But the Belarusian is in fine form, and she is yet to drop a single set in the Australian Open Sabalenka will now face Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina (above) in the final on Saturday [Wimbledon](/sport/wimbledon/index.html) champion Elena Rybakina in the final after she beat Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 earlier on Thursday. - She will now face Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the final on Saturday [Aryna Sabalenka](/sport/aryna-sabalenka/index.html) reached the [Australian Open](/sport/australian_open/index.html) final after beating Magda Linette 7-6 (7-1) 6-2.

The Belarusian fifth seed had lost her three previous Grand Slam semi-finals but downed Poland's Magda Linette 7-6(1), 6-2 at Melbourne Park on Thursday to set ...

I was just trying to hold myself, stay calm, just think about the next point,” she added. “I think I know myself quite well. I realized that nobody [other] than me will help me,” Sabalenka told reporters.

Two of the biggest hitters in women's tennis go toe-to-toe when Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina clash in Saturday's Australian Open final in Melbourne.

“I was trying to do less screaming after some bad points or some errors,” Sabalenka said. But she is more than just a big serve and has enough all-court game to ward off most danger — her wide reach and ability to hit winners off both wings enabling her to get out of trouble. “I just have to take this responsibility and I just have to deal with that.” Sabalenka is now so confident of handling her emotions — demonstrated as she smoothly fought back from 2-0 down in the first set against Linette — that she has dispensed with her sports psychologist. Belarusian fifth seed Sabalenka is in the form of her life and on the brink of a maiden Grand Slam crown. Sabalenka is more brutal, her muscles generating spin and driving the ball through the court.

That run includes victories over three-time Slam winner and Iga Swiatek, 2012-13 Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka and 2017 French Open champ Jelena ...

But Sabalenka reworked the mechanics on her serve during a five-day session less than a month before the U.S. Then she found the serve. “As a matchup, I mean, it’s going to be a lot of mistakes, a lot of winners, I’m sure about that, from both sides, because there is going to be a lot of pressure," said Stefano Vukov, Rybakina’s coach. It’s a style that evokes the way the Williams sisters went about winning when they began to transform the sport — and rather different from the way the current No. It's a significant development for someone who struggled mightily with double-faulting last year, accumulating nearly 400 over the course of the season, including more than 20 in some matches. Since then, Sabalenka's coach, Anton Dubrov observed, “Aryna lost (her) serve. Something else Sabalenka has improved that has made her a better player: the way she manages her mindset during a match. 1, Iga Swiatek, and her predecessor, the retired Ash Barty, went about things. It’s a big tournament, big final,” Sabalenka said. 5; Rybakina is No. She is seeded No. Saturday’s contest is, after all, Sabalenka’s first singles title match at a Grand Slam tournament.

The 24-year-old will take on Elena Rybakina in the final on Saturday.

Coaching is now allowed, and I think she’s using it in the best possible way.” He defended his conduct, saying: “I think that it’s easy to just take clips and then make something controversial. “I think we had a really, really good pre-season. “It’s a big tournament, big final. “So she understands that she’s actually tough. “I realised that nobody other than me will help,” she said.