Women’s final Australian Open – The tiger has awakened: Sabalenka wins her first major title – sport

• Aryna Sabalenka (WTA 5) wins the final of the Australian Open and wins her first Grand Slam title.
• The Belarusian falls back into old patterns in the starting set and gives up a set against Jelena Rybakina (WTA 25) for the first time this year.
• After that, their risky style of play pays off, the 4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4 victory is certain after 2:28 hours.

Women’s tennis has a new Grand Slam champion: Aryna Sabalenka. After almost two and a half hours, the 24-year-old Belarusian won a high-quality final against Jelena Rybakina, who was one year younger. Sabalenka had previously reached a major semifinal three times, but never a final.

She is also the first player to win a Grand Slam tournament under a neutral flag. The 1.82 m tall right-hander with the eye-catching tiger tattoo on her forearm will improve to second place in the world rankings.

The good old double faults

With victory in sight, Sabalenka’s hand trembled violently in the Rod Laver Arena. She was only able to use the 4th match point against the 2022 Wimbledon winner after making a double mistake, among other things. As a result, she managed to fend off her opponent’s break chance with the fastest serve of the entire final (192 km/h).

The last game symbolized the entire game – and Sabalenka’s style of play. The serve is a much-discussed topic for the Belarusian. On the tour, she is one of those players who has made the most double faults in the past. This season Sabalenka got the problem under control. Certainly one of the reasons why she had not given a single set in the 10 games earlier this year.

Against Rybakina, Sabalenka fell back into old patterns at the beginning of the game: she made 5 double mistakes in the opening set. One led to a break chance that Rybakina took, another sealed the second break for the Kazakh by choice, who won her first major title at Wimbledon last year.

Risk pays off

Sabalenka’s success was ultimately due to the fact that she was able to stop these double faults and her risky style of play now paid off in full. She beat 21 winners in the second round (51 in total). At times her opponent couldn’t find a way to counter the Belarusian’s powerful game. Rybakina played anything but bad. But as soon as Sabalenka got into the rallies, things got difficult for the 23-year-old.

In the 3rd set it was Sabalenka who held the scepter in her hand. Already at 2: 2 she had the opportunity for a service breakthrough. When the score was 3:3, she finally made the decisive break. And a little later she crowned her increase with the greatest success of her career.