5 min readFeb 1, 2026 12:14 PM IST
First published on: Jan 31, 2026 at 04:46 PM IST
ELENA Rybakina has always been an enigma. A confounding number of injuries and illnesses have plagued her career since her breakthrough Wimbledon triumph in 2022. Her resistance to seizing momentum when she has it has frustrated observers. The tumult in her personal life—hiring, firing and rehiring coach Stefano Vukov, who was later banned by the WTA for inappropriate behaviour—has provided gossip in tennis circles. At times, she has looked one-dimensional and unwilling to evolve.
As she betrayed little emotion following the greatest performance of her career on Saturday, allowing herself only a slight smile and shrug after beating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to win the Australian Open, that peculiarity remained. The 26-year-old, raised in Russia but representing Kazakhstan, is determined to do things her way. But what is no longer in question is her place among the women’s game’s elite.
Rybakina capped a six-month surge in which she has proven to be the best player on the women’s tour, lifting four titles including last year’s WTA Finals, and winning 20 of her last 21 matches. She claimed a second Major title despite a perilous path—defeating three top-six players (the first to do so in Melbourne), both the top two seeds, and dropping only a single set throughout the fortnight. In the final, she toppled not just the world’s top-ranked player but this generation’s foremost hardcourter.
On a pulsating evening at Rod Laver Arena, in a tense final full of twists and nerves, Rybakina came back from the brink. Her massive serve, pinpoint returns and heavy, flat groundstrokes were complemented by steely determination. Two service holds away from the title, she faltered and let her opponent back in, dropping five consecutive games before regaining composure to storm to victory.
“I want to say thank you to you guys. Thank you so much to Kazakhstan. I felt the support from that corner a lot. It’s really a Happy Slam and I always enjoy coming here and playing in front of you guys, Rybakina said on court in her characteristically understated style.
Sabalenka will take little comfort from this evening. For a player as dominant as her, and at the peak of her form and fitness, a return of just four Major titles is disappointing, especially considering she has now reached eight Major finals. Saturday was another occasion where she failed to cope when her attack-first aggression didn’t yield results, and she showed inadequate adaptability.
“I’m really speechless right now,” Sabalenka said, congratulating her opponent before adding, “Let’s hope next year is going to be a better year”. A bitter pill for a player who has now lost two consecutive finals at her favourite Major.
This was a rematch of the 2023 final between these two players, which, for its relentless display of breathless shotmaking, turned into an all-time classic. This didn’t quite match it in rally quality but equalled it in intensity and low margins for error.
Sabalenka and Rybakina may have polar opposite personalities—the tennis equivalent of fire and ice—but there are similarities in their big-hitting styles. The former is all power, all the time, while the latter hits a big flat ball when it comes into her strike zone. From the first game, when Rybakina broke Sabalenka, it became clear the ball was doing just that. Rybakina was serving missiles and leathering returns back into play at her opponent’s feet. Her down-the-line backhand was firing, and rally balls weren’t being left short.
This required a change of tack from Sabalenka—to elongate points and elicit errors from Rybakina, especially when the latter wobbled to gift her the second set. But Sabalenka’s relentlessness to go after the ball produced enough mistakes for Rybakina to gain a foothold back into the contest, after which she locked in to swarm back to victory.
The triumph confirmed what has been evident since the end of last year’s US Open: Rybakina is the form player in women’s tennis. With big tournaments on her favoured hard courts over the next few months, a realistic push for the world No. 1 ranking is imminent for the women’s game’s quiet killer.
Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan holds the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus to win the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) 
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