Elena Rybakina overcomes Victoria Azarenka at the Australian Open to go to the women's final against Aryna Sabalenka. Streaming live Match
Match DETAILS:
Opponent: Elena Rybakina overcomes Victoria Azarenka
Date: Sat, Jan. 28
Time: 3:30 AM ET
Sports: Tennis
League: Australian Open
Women's Final Match Live
How To Watch Elena Rybakina overcomes Victoria Azarenka Match Live
Watch Live TV: FuboTV
Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon winner, advanced to her first Australian Open final, where she will face fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka in a titanic match on Saturday in Melbourne.
Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina had already met three times, each time at a different point in their careers. Here's a look at what was at stake for both players in prior meetings before their confrontation in Saturday's 2023 Australian Open final.
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Sabalenka defeated Rybakina 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 in the 2019 Wuhan quarterfinals.
An experienced top player and a rising youngster squared off in the matchup (above). The 20-year-old Rybakina made his breakthrough on the circuit in 2019. She had quickly risen from outside the Top 100 to a Top 50 debut in the two months prior to this match after winning her maiden championship in Bucharest and making it to a second final in Nanchang. For Wuhan, her 12th tour-level main draw and first at the WTA 1000 level, she was given a wild card. Prior to defeating Simona Halep by default in the third round, Rybakina had defeated Ons Jabeur in the second round.
As the reigning champion, Sabalenka had suffered a couple of early-round defeats throughout the summer and was attempting to regain her form from the previous year. It had been encouraging to defeat Danielle Collins and Kiki Bertens in straight sets. Sabalenka was the first opponent to drop a set to her this week, but she recovered and went on to successfully retain her championship.
Sabalenka commented after their match, "She broke my serve, and I started to [get] anxious a little bit." "I was simply overstriking the ball. She simply blocked it. hardly hurts her at all. Maybe I wasn't aiming for larger goals. In the third match, I was attempting to move her a little bit more quickly from side to side. Don't give her too much time."
Head to Head
Sabalenka defeated Rybakina 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the 2021 Abu Dhabi quarterfinals.
Rybakina had established herself in the Top 20 by the beginning of 2021. The Covid-19 cutoff, however, has slowed her momentum at the beginning of 2020, and she has been candid about her struggles to regain it. She suffered a three-match losing run towards the close of 2020, but at the beginning of the new season, she started to turn things around and made it to the first round of the Abu Dhabi tournament.
Sabalenka, on the other hand, was in the midst of a 15-match winning streak, which was a career high. She had won back-to-back tournaments in Ostrava and Linz at the close of 2020, and she took that momentum into 2021 to win a third straight competition in Abu Dhabi. This victory marked the beginning of an incredible season in which she was ranked No. 2 in the world. In a match we dubbed "a masterclass in first-strike tennis," Rybakina was the only player to defeat Sabalenka in sets this week.
Wimbledon R4 in 2021 saw [2] Sabalenka defeat [18] Rybakina 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
At Wimbledon 2021, Sabalenka was under a lot of pressure. She won the Madrid championship and reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 after maintaining her Abu Dhabi form throughout the first half of the season. But she hadn't yet advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam. Due to Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep's unavailability, Sabalenka was given the No. 2 seed. The previous month at Roland Garros, Sabalenka lost to eventual runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round.
Rybakina had just achieved her own Grand Slam success. She had advanced to the second week of a major in Paris for the first time, and she celebrated by defeating Serena Williams in a decisive match to get to the quarterfinals. It was interestingly the No. 18 seed's first Wimbledon main-draw match. Varvara Flink had defeated her in the 2019 qualifying round (the tournament was not held in 2020).
Sabalenka ultimately triumphed, earning the final 12 points of the match to accomplish the long-awaited milestone.
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