With two hours and 25 minutes played, Aryna Sabalenka walked to the baseline, looking confident and she could be. She had gained a huge advantage. She led with a break in this third and final set, it was 5:4. If she just got through that one service game, she would be the new Australian Open champion. But what is easy at a moment like this?
In fact, she fought for the first match point, it was 10:07 p.m. on this summery Saturday evening, a few seagulls had chattered and moaned in the sky over the Rod Laver Arena, the sky shimmered gray at first, then dark, luckily it had stayed dry, that retractable roof was not required. Sabalenka now did what she hates, but what happens to her again and again: a double fault. She earned a second match ball – her forehand ball landed on the side. Third match point, it was now a matter of nerves. Now she made a backhand error. Suddenly her opponent, Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, 23, who was born in Moscow and has been representing Kazakhstan for several years, had a break point. Within seven months she had reached her second major final. But Sabalenka saved that break point, she immediately went back on the offensive, and when she had her fourth match point, she was successful.
Rybakina hit the ball wide, Sabalenka threw herself on her back when it was 4: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4 – and stayed there for a few seconds. She clasped her hands over her face, sobbing. Of course, such emotions had been seen here before, in Melbourne, in 2016, for example, the German Angelique Kerber was on the ground with joy. But Sabalenka, 24, from Minsk, is new as a Grand Slam winner, and she was experiencing this moment for the first time. Tears shimmered in her eyes, and her body shook again and again.
New as a Grand Slam winner: Aryna Sabalenka, 24, was shaken by her emotions after the fourth match ball was used.
(Photo: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP)
The Belarusian will receive 1.94 million euros, while Rybakina will receive a tolerable 1.06 million euros. Sabalenka will be the new number two in the world rankings from Monday, this season she is undefeated in eleven matches. If she plays like she did in Melbourne in the past two weeks, she is the benchmark of her sport.
Sabalenka accepted the trophy, the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup, from Billie Jean King, one of the founders of the women’s profit tour. “It’s such an honor to receive it from you,” said Sabalenka, who is in the Episode giggled quite a lot and thanked very much. She was overwhelmed. There have been more impressive speeches, of course that’s a bit strict now, the Chinese Li Na once entertained the whole stadium for minutes in 2014.
But Sabalenka had shone elsewhere, and that was all that mattered. She won this momentous title with a kind of tennis that is new at this stage of a Grand Slam tournament. Or at least you haven’t seen it for so long. It’s brute tennis that even the legendary Serena Williams didn’t know how to implement in the best moments.
The finalists score a lot of points with a maximum of four strokes
What is really groundbreaking: Sabalenka hardly ever has long rallies. There are also hardly any medium-length rallies. In the Australian daily newspaper The Age the renowned tennis data analyst Craig O’Shannessy published interesting numbers. Both Sabalenka and Rybakina scored more than 70 percent of their points in four-shot rallies on their way to the final. “The first two shots affect both players more than any other shots that follow,” wrote O’Shannessy, who has previously worked with Novak Djokovic.
He even sees a new era coming for women. It certainly also plays a role that dominant players like Ashleigh Barty have stopped or the pregnant Naomi Osaka is taking a break. The question is whether this powerful tennis will prevail in the long term. In Melbourne it did.
Constantly under pressure: Elena Rybakina rarely got to dictate the match herself.
(Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty)
Many rallies in the final were very, very short, and it was noticeable that those who showed more control in this game at the limit usually had the advantage. The first movement therefore also belonged to Rybakina. Sabalenka acted quite wildly in this round, with her many actions seem like a tightrope walk. Already the first two points in the first set were the blueprint of their performance: double faults, ace, hop and top. There were three breaks in the set, three losses of serve. Rybakina, 1.84 meters tall and two centimeters taller than Sabalenka, cracked Sabalenka at 4:4, break to 5:4, she served safely to 6:4.
From the second sentence applies: Sabalenka hammers on it – and hits
As O’Shannessy had put it, the stats now looked like: With only four out of 53 points played, the rally went over nine strokes. 40 times it said: 0 to 4 beats. In this way this duel was fought to the end. It was particularly impressive how Sabalenka operated. She was now mostly in control of her thunderous punches, which were almost always accompanied by a terrifying sound. You could get scared at some punch-scream performances. The 15,000 spectators then happily whispered, half amused, half frightened.
From the second set, the game had more or less only one course: Sabalenka hammered it, and not when a chance arose. But almost always. Rybakina could barely breathe. She was mostly under pressure. Sabalenka constantly stressed her. Others slowly shift up a gear when returning, first gear, second, third – Sabalenka immediately shifted into fourth, sometimes fifth – as if she had a button for a kind of turbo boost function. But this was real. 6:3 for Sabalenka, it went into the deciding set.
The game was also a bit strange, because Rybakina played quietly to herself, you almost didn’t notice her because Sabalenka filled the whole stadium acoustically with her thunderbolts and noises. Now it was tight, 1: 1, 2: 2, 3: 3. Then Sabalenka took the serve from her opponent to make it 4:3. 5:4 – and the last long service game in this high-class game followed.