Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus has become the champion in the women’s singles event of the Australian Open 2023 at the Rod Laver Arena on Saturday. Now on Sunday, the men’s singles final will be played between Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.
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In the title match, Sabalenka defeated Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Rybakina won the first set 6-4, after which Sabalenka made a tremendous comeback. Sabalenka won the second set 6-3 and the third set 6-4. This is Sabalenka’s first Grand Slam title.
This was the fourth match between the two. Sabalenka has won all the four matches. The two were facing each other for the first time in a Grand Slam final. Earlier, there was a match between Rybakina and Sabalenka in the fourth round of Wimbledon in July 2021. Apart from this, both had met in the quarter-finals of the Abu Dhabi Tennis Open in January 2021 and the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open in September 2019.
The 23-year-old Rybakina has so far won three titles, including one Grand Slam. She won the first Grand Slam in 2022 in the form of Wimbledon. Rybakina’s current ranking in women’s singles is 23. At the same time, this is the first Grand Slam title of 24-year-old Sabalenka. However, in singles, she has won a total of 12 titles including the Australian Open. His current ranking is five.
In addition, Sabalenka, seeded fifth, had earlier reached the semi-finals of the US Open. Recently she has won the Adelaide tournament. She is in great shape at the moment and had not dropped a set this year until the match against Rybakina. In the final of the Australian Open 2023, she lost only one set and became the champion.
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At the same time, Rybakina is the first player since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to defeat three former Grand Slam champions at Melbourne Park. She defeated three Grand Slam winners Iga Swiatek, 2012–13 Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko. Apart from this, Danielle Collins, who was the runner-up here last year, also became his victim. However, she was defeated in the final against Sabalenka.
