{"id":445181,"date":"2026-01-29T13:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445181\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T13:03:08","slug":"sabalenka-bests-svitolina-on-to-fourth-australian-open-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445181\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka bests Svitolina, on to fourth Australian Open final"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia — Not even a point penalty for hindrance slowed Aryna Sabalenka<\/a>‘s run to a fourth consecutive Australian Open final.<\/p>\n

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

In the title match, the Belarusian will play fifth-seeded Elena Rybakina<\/a>, who defeated sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula<\/a> 6-3, 7-6 (7). Rybakina won Wimbledon in 2022 and was runner-up in Australia to Sabalenka in 2023.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

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

Sabalenka kept both of her 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.<\/p>\n

As has become customary for Ukrainians against players from Russia and Belarus, there was no handshake at the net. There was also no group photo before the match.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“It’s an incredible achievement, but the job’s not done yet,” an emotional Sabalenka said in her on-court TV interview. “I’ve been watching her game. [Svitolina] was playing incredible. I felt like I had to step in and put as much pressure as I could back on her. I’m glad the level was there. I think I played great tennis.”<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka overpowered Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-3 to move within one victory of a third Australian Open title in four years.\u00a0Shi Tang\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The only hiccup was at the start of the fourth game. Hindrance is called for a distraction that prevents a player from making a shot and can include an opponent’s loud noise.<\/p>\n

Umpire Louise Azemar Engzell deemed Sabalenka made a prolonged grunt after she shanked a forehand. The shot seemed to be going long but landed inside the baseline, giving Svitolina the chance to play on. That’s when the umpire intervened.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka asked for a video review, but the point penalty was upheld when Azemar Engzell confirmed her decision that the grunt was more elongated than usual.<\/p>\n

It didn’t bother Sabalenka for long. She broke serve in that game and controlled most of the remainder of the match.<\/p>\n

“That’s actually never happened to me … especially with my grunting,” Sabalenka said. “Then she called it, and I was, like, ‘What? What is wrong with you?'”<\/p>\n

Sabalenka said it aggravated her but worked as motivation.<\/p>\n

“It actually helped me. I was more aggressive. I was not happy with the call, and it really helped me to get that game,” Sabalenka said, adding with a laugh, “So if she [Azemar Engzell] ever wants to do it again — like, I want to make sure that she’s not afraid of it — go ahead, call it. It’s going to help me.”<\/p>\n

Svitolina’s only service break was at the start of the second set. But Sabalenka rallied immediately and won the next five games.<\/p>\n

After reaching her first semifinal in Australia and winning a title in a warmup tournament in New Zealand, Svitolina will return to the top 10 for the first time since she took a maternity break in 2022.<\/p>\n

The Auckland title was her first foray back on tour after an early end to the 2025 season for a mental health break. She said the rest and time out prolonged her career.<\/p>\n

“Definitely very, very happy with the two weeks here and in New Zealand, as well, winning,” Svitolina said. “Gutted to not make it through tonight, but it’s very difficult when you’re playing the world No. 1, who is really on fire.”<\/p>\n

Svitolina was playing her fourth semifinal at a major — 2019 and 2023 at Wimbledon and the 2019 US Open — but again wasn’t able to get to the championship match.<\/p>\n

“It was really complicated for me today,” she said, “But, yeah, I just want to take positives from the past weeks, the beginning of the year, and just carry them through for the season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia — Not even a point penalty for hindrance slowed Aryna Sabalenka‘s run to a fourth consecutive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-445181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445181","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=445181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}