Aryna Sabalenka storms into fourth straight Australian Open final

Aryna Sabalenka defeated Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-3 to reach her fourth consecutive Australian Open final. She will face Elena Rybakina, who beat Jessica Pegula in straight sets, setting up a rematch of the 2023 championship clash

Melbourne: Not even a point penalty for hindrance slowed Aryna Sabalenka’s run to a fourth consecutive Australian Open final.

The top-ranked Sabalenka overpowered Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday night to move within one victory of a third Australian Open title in four years.

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A rematch of the 2023 final against Elena Rybakina was set up when the No 5 seed ousted No 6 Jessica Pegula 6-3, 7-6 (7) in the second semifinal.

“It was a great battle (against Sabalenka in 2023),” Rybakina said. “In the end, she played a bit better and it was well deserved. I want to enjoy the final and hopefully I can serve better than today. I am so excited.”

Her semifinal was mostly one way until Rybakina had match point. The 2022 Wimbledon champion missed three match points on Pegula’s serve and then was broken twice while serving for the match.

Pegula rallied and had two set points in the tiebreaker but wasn’t able to convert, and Rybakina finally clinched it 29 minutes after her first match point.

“All of it was really stressful,” Rybakina said. She admitted to flashbacks from the 2024 Open when she lost the longest women’s tiebreaker ever at a Grand Slam to Anna Blinkova 22-20 in a three-set defeat.

“I’m proud no matter the situation. It got very tight, I stayed there,” she said of the win over Pegula. “I was fighting for each point.”

All four players reached the semifinals without dropping a set — in Australia for the first time in 56 years — and Sabalenka and Svitolina were each on 10-match winning streaks to start the season after titles in warmup events.

Sabalenka kept both streaks alive. She hit 19 winners and broke Svitolina’s serve twice in the first set. She finished with 29 winners to 12 for her Ukrainian rival.

As has become customary for Ukrainians against players from Russia and Belarus, there were no handshakes at the net and no group photo before the match.

Sabalenka is the third woman in the Open era to reach four consecutive singles finals at the Australian Open after Evonne Goolagong and Martina Hingis.

“It’s an incredible achievement but the job’s not done yet,” Sabalenka said in her on-court TV interview. “I felt like I had to step in and put as much pressure as I could back on her. I think I played great tennis.”

The hindrance call
The only hiccup came in the fourth game when umpire Louise Azemar Engzell deemed Sabalenka made a prolonged grunt after shanking a forehand. Sabalenka asked for a video review but the decision stood. She broke serve in that game and later said the call motivated her to play more aggressively.

Svitolina’s exit
After reaching her first semifinal in Australia and winning a warmup title in New Zealand, Svitolina will return to the top 10 for the first time since her maternity break in 2022.

“It was really complicated for me today,” she said. “I just want to take positives from the past weeks and carry them through for the season.”