She defeated Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina in a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback victory.
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus holds the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy aloft after defeating Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023MELBOURNE, Australia — One point away from her first Grand Slam title, Aryna Sabalenka faulted. And then she faulted again. She grimaced. She yelled and turned her back to the court. She wiggled her shoulders and exhaled.
“The last game, yeah, of course, I was a little bit nervous. I telling myself, like, ’Nobody tells you that it’s going to be easy.' You just have to work for it, work for it, ’til the last point,” said Sabalenka, a 24-year-old from Belarus who is now 11-0 with two titles in 2023 and will rise to No. 2 in the WTA rankings on Monday.The only set she has dropped all season was the opener on Saturday against Rybakina, who eliminated No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the fourth round.
Well, she had a lot to do with it, of course. Those serves that produced 17 aces, helping erase the sting of seven double-faults. Those hammered groundstrokes and relentlessly aggressive style that produced 51 winners, 20 more than Rybakina's total. And, despite her go-for-broke shotmaking, somehow Sabalenka limited her unforced error count to 28.
Her most glowing strength was also her most glaring shortfall: her serve. Capable of delivering aces, she also had a well-known problem with double-faulting, leading the tour in that category last year with nearly 400, including matches with more than 20.
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