Aryna Sabalenka held the silver trophy in her arms like a baby as she began the acceptance speech, overwhelmed with emotion. “First of all, I want to apologize for my English, I’m still shaking and I’m super nervous,” said the tennis player after her first Grand Slam tournament victory at the Australian Open.
Overjoyed, the 24-year-old had previously received the trophy from tennis icon Billie Jean King and was not so quick to let it go. The fact that the Belarusian had to celebrate the greatest success of her career under a neutral flag – as the first Grand Slam tournament winner ever – didn’t seem to bother her at the moment of triumph. As a neutral athlete, she felt that she was well supported by the audience.
“I think everyone still knows that I’m a Belarusian player,” she said at the press conference after the 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win in the high-class final against Wimbledon winner Jelena Rybakina from Kazakhstan. Because of the Russian war of aggression, Russians and Belarusians are not allowed to compete under their national flag in Melbourne.
Emotional triumph
After Sabalenka converted the fourth match point after 2:28 hours, it broke out of her. She collapsed on the hard court of the Rod Laver Arena, she sobbed, cried, laughed – and could hardly believe her happy ending in the thrilling final thriller. When she got to her feet, the first thing she did was go to her box. The people in the “crazy team”, said Sabalenka, “deserved the trophy even more than I did”.
The athlete, who often had weak nerves in the past, remained focused in her first Grand Slam final – even after losing the first set with a weak serve that she thought had long been overcome. Sabalenka fought back with her powerful baseline shots and made the preliminary decision in the third set with the break to 4:3. “It was my best match, I really enjoyed the fight,” she said. It was the “best day of my life”. In addition to the first big title and the prize money of around 1.95 million euros, Sabalenka can also look forward to climbing to second place in the world rankings. It has never been higher in the ranking.
Rybakina, who eliminated three previous Grand Slam tournament winners on her way to the final in Iga Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Viktoria Asarenka, showed herself to be a fair loser. The 23-year-old said she had “goosebumps” at the final atmosphere: “I hope that I can achieve the same result next year – maybe even better.”
High level
The native Russian, who has competed for Kazakhstan since 2018, also played well in the final. The two equal opponents gave each other nothing and provided great tennis fun for the spectators in the stadium and on TV. “What a great final!” enthused national coach Barbara Rittner at Eurosport: “This is the tennis of the future: hard baseline shots, initiative, great serves.”
Former Fed Cup player Andrea Petkovic even believes in an era of sporting rivalry between the two finalists: “We see two players who will often play against each other in major finals in the years to come, and that will be the end of women’s tennis push.” Rybakina wouldn’t mind: “I hope we’ll have a lot more fights.”
