Elena Rybakina beats Victoria Azarenka to reach final of Australian Open 2023
Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina reached another major final as she beat two-time winner Victoria Azarenka in the Australian Open semi-finals.Rybakina, 23, won 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to end Azarenka’s hopes of winning the title 10 years after her last triumph.
The Kazakh regained her composure in a nervy end to the first set before confidently dominating the second.She will play either Belarusian fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka or unseeded Pole Magda Linette in Saturday’s final.
The pair followed Rybakina and Azarenka – who is also from Belarus – on to court in Thursday’s second semi-final at Melbourne Park.
“I’m super happy to be in the final and play one more time here,” said 22nd seed Rybakina, who will contest her second major final.
“It was different conditions, I couldn’t play aggressive tennis and couldn’t go so much for my shots but I was happy to win.
“I got a lot of experience from Wimbledon and I want to come on court for the final and enjoy the moment.”
Rybakina has been one of the most unheralded Wimbledon champions in recent history as a result of her low profile and a lower-than-expected ranking caused by points not being awarded at the All England Club last year.
At Melbourne Park, the tall Kazakh has been reminding people once again of her outstanding talent.At the US Open last year, Rybakina said she did not “feel like” a major winner because she was ranked outside of the world’s top 20 after points were stripped because of Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players.
Rybakina was also stuck on a small outside court for her Australian Open first-round match – although she insisted she “did not care” – but since then there has been no escaping the threat she posed in the draw.
She was responsible for knocking out world number Iga Swiatek in the last 16, either side of other notable wins against 2022 runner-up Danielle Collins and 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko.Big serving has been one of the keys to her success and it teed up what many expected to be a fascinating contest against 33-year-old Azarenka, whose returning game has been a key to her success.
Rybakina laid down a marker in the first game of the match with three aces and produced another comfortable hold before 24th seed Azarenka – absorbing her opponent’s power which helped her switch defence into attack – broke for 3-2.
An instant reply swung the momentum back to Rybakina but, as she tried to serve out the set at 5-3, her first-serve percentage suddenly plummeted.That enabled Azarenka to fight back to 5-5 and earn three break points in the 11th game, only for Rybakina to regain her composure to hold and giving her the confidence to take control of the tie-break.
Azarenka was not helped by several costly errors and they continued in the second set as Rybakina imposed herself with two breaks for a 5-2 lead.
While she could not serve out the match, Rybakina sealed victory with another break and – rather fittingly – produced a low-key celebration as she ended the prospect of an-all Belarusian final.
(BBC Sports)
