Tennis

Aryna Sabalenka to Elena Rybakina: You are such a great player

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Aryna Sabalenka described Elena Rybakina as “a great player” moments after beating the Kazakh in the Australian Open final for her first Grand Slam title.

Sabalenka, 24, recovered from a set down to beat 23-year-old Rybakina 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the final at Melbourne Park.

Sabalenka, who now owns a 4-0 head-to-head against Rybakina, expressed hope to meet the Kazakh again in a Grand Slam final. 

“You’re such a great player. Of course we are going to have many more battles, hopefully in the finals of a Grand Slam,” Sabalenka told Rybakina on the court, per the Australian Open website.

After losing three Grand Slam semifinals in the past, Sabalenka has finally managed to make a big Grand Slam breakthrough.

“We’ve been through a lot of downs last year. We worked so hard. You guys deserve this trophy. It’s more about you than it is about me. Thank you so much for everything you are doing for me. I love you guys,” Sabalenka told her team.

Sabalenka on the final game against Rybakina

Sabalenka earned the first break of the third set in the seventh game to open a 4-3 lead. 

Serving for the match at 5-4, Sabalenka started the game with a double fault.

Then, Sabalenka missed out on two match points before Rybakina earned a break point.

Fortunately for Sabalenka, she was able to save Rybakina’s break point.

Then, Sabalenka missed out on her third match point but finally converted her fourth match point to complete a two-set win.

“Well, it was a good start for me. I was like, ‘Well, it’s going to be fun after the double fault (laughter). The last game, yeah, of course I was a little bit nervous. I kept telling myself like, Nobody tells you that it’s going to be easy, you just have to work for it, work for it until the last point. Yeah, there was a tough game. I’m super happy that I was able to handle all those emotions and win this one,” Sabalenka reflected, per Musab Abid.

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