The 24-year-old player from Belarus was playing in this tournament without the name of her country and without its flag, but she still raised the name of herself and her country.
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Another champion’s name has been added to the history of the Australian Open. In the first Grand Slam of the year, Arina Sabalenka of Belarus has won the women’s singles title. Sabalenka won the Australian Open title for the first time by defeating Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in a hard-fought two-and-a-half-hour final at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Saturday, January 28. Coming back after losing the first set, Sabalenka won the first Grand Slam of her career with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.
In the tournament, the fourth seed Sabalenka had a tough challenge from the current Wimbledon champion Rybakina. Rybakina had reached the final by defeating 3 Grand Slam champion players including the current world number one Iga Swantek. In such a situation, he was being considered as a strong contender for the title.
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Your #AO2023 women’s singles champion, @SabalenkaA @wwos , @espn , @eurosport , @wowowtennis , #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/5ggS5E7JTp
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 28, 2023
Rybakina started the match in the same way and defeated Sabalenka 6-4 in the first set without any trouble. He had a chance to win the title in the next set but Sabalenka made a wonderful comeback and won the next set 6-3. However, during this, Sabalenka also committed double faults several times and gave Rybakina chances to come back.
Sabalenka, serving for the title of the deciding set, lost championship points 3 times and it seemed that Rybakina would take it to the tie-break but Sabalenka won on the fourth attempt.