by Aryna Sabalenka landed her first Grand Slam in Saturday’s final and will be the new world number 2 on Monday. It was a game of high-power, high-class tennis as she edged out Elena Rybakina (6-4, 3-6, 4-6). She handled the final like a true champion as she fought back after going down in the first set.
Rybakina Takes the First Set (6-4)
Sabalenka won the coin toss but got off to a nervy start, double-faulting the first point. However, she held on, and in fact, both players were tied at 1-1 after the first two games. Elena Rybakina attacked fiercely forcing Sabalenka to go even bigger on her serves, which prompted a few mistakes and Rybakina capitalized perfectly to break Sabalenka.
Sabalenka fought back and broke Rybakina to get the set to a 4-4 tie but was broken right back by Rybakina after the Belarussian player made a questionable choice on her serve and double-faulted to lose the game. At that point, Rybakina needed only to hold serve and took the set 6-4.
Sabalenka’s Fiery Comeback
As the second set got going, Ryabkina was effectively taking off the power of Aryna’s serve however the Belarussian responded by hitting even harder. Aryna started swinging more freely. Though Rybakina’s first serves were tricky to get points from, Sabalaneka made sure to return Rybakina’s second serves with venom. She also started attacking Rybakina’s forehand more and pushing her to hit down the line, which the Khazakhstani player tends to avoid. It was good tactics from Sabalenka.
The Belarussian managed to break her opponent in the fourth match, to go up 1-3. From that point on Sabalenka player just grew in confidence and was not about to get broken. She took the second set 6-3 and went about the third set in a similar fashion, by playing as aggressively as possible no matter the double faults.
As the set progressed, the two were tied at 3-3, but Rybakina’s serve was getting tested at every game, and most of her holds went to deuce. Rybakina held on to save 2 break points but was still broken at 3-4. Sabalenka was hitting winners and forcing mistakes from Rybakina. At that point, even Aryna’s serve was still getting bigger and bigger. She took her next hold with a sweet ace to make it 3-5. Rybakina held to stay in the match and it was then down to Aryna to make the last lunge for the trophy.
Four Championship Points
She approached the final game as she approached all of those preceding it, with aggression. Despite losing the first set to a double fault of her own, she still was determined to hit her second serve as aggressively as the first, no matter the cost. She double-faulted her first championship point. On her part, Rybakina was still eyeing the break and saved another 2 championship points and even had her own chance to break.
The defining moment came at the fourth championship point when Sabalenka finally took some pace off the serve and forced a forehand mistake from her opponent. She dropped down to the ground in elation, she had done it. Aryna Sabalenka, Grand Slam champion.
A Match of Close Calls
Although the head-to-head statistics between the two players was 0-3 before the match, an in-depth look at each of those matches shows just how close the two players have always been. This final was no different and so it was always going to be about who handled the critical moments best and who was the one consistently on her game.
Problems for Elena Rybakina emerged early in the second set when she started faulting her first serve. The second serve was slow by her standard and Sabalenka attacked this with precision. As the game wore on, Rybakina improved her first serve percentage, but it was still below 60% by the end of the match, which is quite low compared to her usual standard. When she got her first serve in, she was taking points from Sabalenka. In fact, the percentage points won from first serves was exactly equal for both players, 71%.
The pendulum swung in Sabalenka’s favour when it got to second serves. This was one of the crucial aspects of the game as Sabalenka attacked Rybakina’s second serve with outright winners and served her own second serves as if they were first serves. She risked more double faults, but in the process got more aces and more winners.
Rybakina Will Be Back for More
Much has been made of Elena Rybakina’s quiet demeanor, and the contrast to Sabalenka’s emotional stance hit like a hammer throughout the match. It was a classy gesture of the runner-up to walk over to the new champion and give her a warm hug at the end of the match and there was no sulking in the press conference either.
Though she lost the final her progress in the tournament means that finally, Elena Rybakina will be in the Top 10 in the world rankings on Monday. However, when asked about this she replied that she won’t feel much different and that it’s the trophies that count.
No journalist dared bring up the head-to-head statistic between the two players, in which Rybakina now trails Sabalenka 0-4. However, when asked in her press conference, whether she prefers to play hard hitters like Aryna, versus players who change direction while playing slower balls, Elena was quick to reply with a telling answer. The Khazaktstani player replied definitively: “since with Aryna now the score is 0-4, the most challenging for me would be to play Aryna and get a win, so I would say … against powerful players like Aryna, to improve.” Spoken with the mentality of a competitive professional who is hungry for more.
Aryna Sabalenka Grand Slam Champion
Victory is especially sweet for the Belarussian whose previous couple of years on tour were tumultuous to say the least. She was defeated at the semi-final of three Grand Slams and could not compete in Wimbledon because of her nationality and the role of Belarus in the Ukrainian war. In the process, she also lost her no. 2 spot and dropped to no. 5 in the rankings.
However, the player from Minsk has started 2023 with a bang, bagging the Adelaide Open and her first Grand Slam, climbing back to world no. 2 in the process. She is yet to drop a match this year and will draw from her growing self-confidence as she set her sights on more achievements and potentially world no. 1.
