*This content was translated by AI.
Elena Rybakina (5th, Kazakhstan) won the Australian Open for the first time in her career, beating Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus), the "No. 1 tennis women's singles player."
Rybakina defeated Sabalenka 2-1 (6-4 4-6 6-4) after a bloody battle of 2 hours and 18 minutes in the women's singles final of the 2026 Australian Open (total prize money of 111.5 million Australian dollars) held in Melbourne, Australia on the 31st (Korea time).
This is the first time Rybakina has reached the top of the Australian Open. Earlier, he advanced to the final of the 2023 Australian Open, but was blocked by Sabalenka and had to settle for the runner-up. But this time it was different.
Rybakina showed off her ability to defeat strong teams such as Iga Civiontech (2nd, Poland) and Jessica Pegula (6th, USA) in a row at this competition.
Rybakina won the Wimbledon Championships back in 2022. And he experienced his second major championship in four years.
Rybakina also won the prize money (4.15 million Australian dollars, about 4.2 billion won). The world ranking is also expected to rise from fourth to third.
Rybakina defeated Sabalenka 2-0 in last year's WTA Finals. At that time, he made an additional 7 wins and 8 losses this time from 6 wins and 8 losses against his opponent.
On the other hand, Sabalenka collapsed in the third set unfortunately and finished second for the second consecutive year. Sabalenka is the winner of the 2023 and 2024 Australian Open. Last year, he lost 1-2 in the final with Madison Keys (USA, 9th), who had no experience in winning a major tournament at the time. This time, he won his fifth major championship again, but was blocked by Rybakina's wall.
Rybakina took the lead from the first game of the first set and won 6-4. In the second set, with the score tied at 4-4, Sabalenka eventually showed his back and won, turning the set score to 1-1 origin.
In the end, the game was decided in the third set. Rybakina, who gave up her first serve game, turned the game around 4-3, winning four games down from 1-3. And with a 5-4 lead and a 30-30 lead, he succeeded in serving aces one after another and lifted the trophy.
On this day, Rybakina marked six serve aces and Sabalenka marked five serve aces, respectively. In addition, the probability of winning the game was almost the same at 76% and 75% when the first serve was successful. Sabalenka had 35 winners, more than Rybakina (28), and won with three breaks.
After winning, Rybakina said, "I was able to win because of the fans' support. Thank you for creating a wonderful atmosphere. I'm really happy," he said.
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*This content was translated by AI.
