\u201cHard to find the words now,\u201d said Rybakina, and then addressed her beaten opponent to add: \u201cI know it is tough, but I hope we play many more finals together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning to some Kazakh fans in the crowd, she said: \u201cThank you so much to Kazakhstan. I felt the support from that corner a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open<\/a> last year for the second time but lost the French Open<\/a> and Melbourne title deciders.<\/p>\n She was into her fourth Australian Open final in a row and had been imperious until now, with tears in her eyes at the end.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s hope maybe next year will be a better year for me,\u201d Sabalenka said ruefully.<\/p>\n With the roof on because of drizzle in Melbourne, Rybakina immediately broke serve and then comfortably held for 2-0.<\/p>\n Rybakina faced two break points at 4-3, but found her range with her serve to send down an ace and dig herself out of trouble, leaving Sabalenka visibly frustrated.<\/p>\n Rybakina looked in the zone and wrapped up the set in 37 minutes on her first set point when Sabalenka fired long.<\/p>\n Incredibly, it was the first set Sabalenka had dropped in 2026.<\/p>\n The second game of the second set was tense, Rybakina saving three break points in a 10-minute arm-wrestle.<\/p>\n They went with serve and the seventh game was another tussle, Sabalenka holding for 4-3 after the best rally of a cagey affair.<\/p>\n The tension ratcheted up and the top seed quickly forged three set points at 5-4 on the Kazakh\u2019s serve, ruthlessly levelling the match at the first chance to force a deciding set.<\/p>\n Sabalenka was now in the ascendancy and smacked a scorching backhand to break for a 2-0 lead, then holding for 3-0.<\/p>\n Rybakina, who also had not dropped a set in reaching the final, looked unusually rattled.<\/p>\n She reset to hold, then wrestled back the break, allowing herself the merest of smiles.<\/p>\n At 3-3 the title threatened to swing either way.<\/p>\n But a surging Rybakina won a fourth game in a row to break for 4-3, then held to put a thrilling victory within sight.<\/p>\n Rybakina sealed the championship with her sixth ace of the match.<\/p>\n The finalists were familiar foes, having met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of them.<\/p>\n Sabalenka came into the final as the favourite, but Rybakina has been one of the form players on the women\u2019s tour in recent months.<\/p>\n She also defeated Sabalenka<\/a> in the decider at the season-ending WTA Finals.<\/p>\n Rybakina beat second seed Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals<\/a> and sixth seed Jessica Pegula in the last four<\/a> in Melbourne.<\/p>\n Rybakina switched to play under the Kazakh flag in 2018 when she was a little-known 19-year-old, citing financial reasons.<\/p>\n<\/a>Rybakina fights back<\/h2>\n
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