What seemed so different, so challenging, about trying to win a Grand Slam title to Elena Ryabkina six months ago is now coming naturally.
And if she can win one more match, she’ll add one championship at the Australian Open to the one she collected at Wimbledon.
The 23-year-old Rybakina, representing Kazakhstan, reached her second final in three major tournaments with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over Victoria Azarenka at Melbourne Park on Thursday, indicating a rapid rise to the top. of tennis
“Everything was new at Wimbledon,” Rybakina said after hitting nine aces in the semifinals.
This might come in handy on Saturday. Then she will face No. 5 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who reached her first Grand Slam title match at the age of 24 after defeating unseeded Magda Linet 7-6 (1), 6-2 in the other semifinal on Thursday.
Sabalenka improved to 10-0 in 2023 and has won all 20 sets she has played this season.
More importantly, the win over Linett gave Sabalenka her first taste of success in the slam semis, having trailed 0–3 so far at that stage, losing each previous attempt by a score of 6–4 in the third set. .
Rybkina and Sabalenka use a similar brand of tennis, which relies on big serves and big hitting from the baseline. However, Sabalenka is far less cautious, and her penchant for high-risk, high-reward play was evident against Linette, who had never previously advanced past the third round in 29 appearances in the majors.
Sabalenka finished with a 33–9 lead in winners, but also compiled more unforced errors than Linett.
The key to both semi-finals was actually the first set tiebreaker. After Azarenka missed the mark on her strokes, for the most part, things got easier for Rybkina, while Sabalenka opened up a 6–0 lead. It wasn’t as if Sabalenka hit the right line every single shot, but Lynette must have felt that way.
Rybakina’s victory over Azarenka, the champion at Melbourne Park in 2012 and 2013, added to an already impressive run through a string of top opponents. She also defeated No. 1 Inga Swiatek and No. 17 Jelena Ostapenko – both holders of major titles – and 2022 Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins.
Rybakina served at 117 miles per hour (189 kph) on Thursday and produced excellent groundstrokes, which she used to close points at will. Her performance against such established returners and defenders on hard courts as former No. 1 and three-time runner-up Azarenka at the US Open was particularly notable.
Rybakina is just 23, 10 years younger than Azarenka, and at the moment the future is certainly looking bright.
Rybakina may only be seeded 22nd in Melbourne, and ranked only 25th, but these numbers are quite misleading and not indicative of her talent and form. She did not get the usual bump from her title at Wimbledon last July, where she was given zero ranking points after the All England Club banned players from Russia and Belarus because of the Ukrainian invasion.
Ryabkina was born in Moscow, but has represented Kazakhstan since 2018, when that country offered to fund her tennis career.
It was windy and cold at Rod Laver Arena by the start of Rybkina vs. Azarenka, with the temperature dropping below 70 °F (20 °C).
It played a part in the way the first set went as it went, with each player seeming to gain the upper hand – and then quickly recovering it. Both found that the conditions slowed down the tennis balls.
“I couldn’t really play aggressive tennis,” Rybakina said. “The ball wasn’t going much.”
Rybakina’s occasional inconsistency was already explained by the game. She started inauspiciously with a double fault, before being caught with three aces.
Azarenka raced to a 3-2 lead on a leaping, full-extension volley winner with both women at the net. Rybakina, however, broke right back, and then once again went up 5–3.
This allowed Rybakina to serve for the set, and she was one point from owning it at 40–30. But Azarenka fired a superb down-the-line forehand passing shot to erase that chance, and ended the game with a big backhand winner, she shouted “Let’s go!”
The mistake-filled tiebreaker ended with Azarenka serving an 11-shot exchange from the forehand wide, and the set now belonged to Rybakina. She broke at love in the second to lead 2-1, and while they would continue to play for the next 25 minutes, the result was never really in doubt.
Sure enough, Rybakina again faltered a bit while trying to serve to win at 5-2. No one expected Azarenka to leave quietly. But one last break, a double-fault by Azarenka, allowed Rybakina to take another step toward another trophy.