Aryna Sabalenka beat Kazakhstan’s 22nd seed Elena Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 sets in a thrilling final with two strong players on Saturday to blast her way to her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. restrained his nerves. in the women’s game.

Sabalenka’s 11th consecutive win of the year will reap the rewards of improved gaming mentality in the New Year, as the Belarusian’s fifth place will move to his career-high 2nd place after Poland’s Iga Swiatek.

Success followed a period of introspection, and for the 24-year-old who had let his emotions stop his progress on the biggest stage with his three previous semi-final defeats in the majors.

He left the preseason sports psychologist and also worked with a biomechanics trainer to improve his fiery serve, which has tended to fail at big moments in the past.

“It’s even more enjoyable after all these tough matches,” Sabalenka told reporters. “Right now I feel like I need those hard losses to understand myself a little bit better. It was like preparation.”

“I’m actually happy that I lost those games, so I can be a different player and a different Aryna right now.”

The results were evident before the first Grand Slam of the year, when she won the Adelaide International 1 title.

Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian players competed individually in Melbourne with no national affiliation, while Sabalenka became the first neutral athlete to win a major. But he underestimated the importance of the change.

“I think everyone still knows that I’m a Belarusian actor. That’s all,” he told reporters flatly.

‘Nobody says it will be easy’

He fell to the ground in delight after having previously finished his first Grand Slam, then walked over to Rybakina’s side to hug him before the players embraced his emotional environment in his cabin. Sabalenka’s coach Anton Dubrov shed tears of joy.

After ousting Rybakina, Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko and Victoria Azarenka, who were victorious at last year’s Wimbledon, she reached the final peak of self-confidence by becoming the first woman to beat three Grand Slam winners since Jennifer Capriati in 2001.

“Last game, of course, I was a little nervous. I said to myself, ‘No one is telling you it’s going to be easy, you just have to work for it until the end’.”

“I’m so happy that I was able to overcome all these feelings and win it.”

Rybakina admitted how hard she worked for her opponent’s first major title.

“I hope we have more wars,” he added. “I’m looking forward to coming back next year.. It’s been a great two weeks for me and I hope I’ll get the same results and even better results.”

Later in the evening, the Australian wild pair of Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata defeated Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski 6-4 7-6(4) to lift the men’s doubles title.