{"id":276479,"date":"2025-11-11T00:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T00:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/276479\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T00:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T00:08:09","slug":"elena-rybakina-wins-wta-finals-snubs-photo-with-tour-chief-portia-archer-aryna-sabalenka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/276479\/","title":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina wins WTA Finals, snubs photo with Tour chief Portia Archer, Aryna Sabalenka"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elena Rybakina<\/a> refused to be in a photo with WTA Tour chief executive Portia Archer after defeating Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> to win the WTA Finals and a record prize of nearly (AUD) $8 million.<\/p>\n

Rybakina produced a nearly flawless performance to defeat the world No.1 6-3, 7-6(0)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But during the trophy ceremony, she refused to join Sabalenka and Archer during an official photo opportunity.<\/p>\n

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Rybakina, 26, remained to one side, even as an official motioned for her to stand next to Archer in the shot.<\/p>\n

She then motioned for Sabalenka and Porter to take the photo without her.<\/p>\n

The WTA banned Rybakina’s coach Stefano Vukov earlier this year following a probe into allegations of “abusive behaviour” towards the former Wimbledon winner.<\/p>\n

Rybakina expressed disappointment over the decision and said ahead of the Australian Open in January that Vukov had “never mistreated me”.<\/p>\n

The world No.6 declined to comment when asked about not joining Archer for the photo.<\/p>\n

However, when she was asked about the case involving Vukov and whether she had held discussions with the WTA Tour about their investigation into Vukov, she said:<\/p>\n

“Well, I think we’re all doing our job, and we had the opportunity to have conversations, but in the end, they never happened. So we’re all doing our job, and I think we’re going to keep it this way.”<\/p>\n

Kazakh star Rybakina struck eight aces and converted the sole break of the match on the indoor hardcourt in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

It was a second loss in the final of the season-ending tournament for Sabalenka after the four-time grand slam winner lost to Caroline Garcia in the 2022 title match.<\/p>\n

Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, was playing her first title match in her third consecutive WTA Finals appearance.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rybakina (far right) declines the offer to enter the photo.\u00a0WTA<\/p>\n

She collected $US5.23 million (just under $8m) after going 5-0 at the event featuring the top eight women. The WTA said that was the largest payout in the history of women’s sports.<\/p>\n

It was also her tour-best 45th hardcourt win of the season. The 26-year-old Kazakhstani became the 10th straight first-time winner of the WTA Finals. She will finish the year at a career-high No.5 in the rankings after a 58\u201319 record that included three titles.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka will finish ranked No.1 for a second straight season. This year, she won four titles, including the US Open, and had 63 match wins. She also reached major finals at Roland-Garros and the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

– with AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina refused to be in a photo with WTA Tour chief executive Portia Archer after defeating Aryna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-276479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}