MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Not even a point penalty for hindrance slowed Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s run to a fourth consecutive Australian Open final.<\/p>\n
The top-ranked Sabalenka overpowered Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-3 Thursday night to move within one victory of a third Australian Open title in four years.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Her semifinal was mostly one way until Rybakina had match point. The 2022 Wimbledon champion missed three match points on Pegula\u2019s serve and then was broken twice while serving for the match.<\/p>\n
Pegula rallied and had two set points in the tiebreaker but wasn\u2019t able to convert, and Rybakina finally clinched it 29 minutes after her first match point.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, really stressful,\u201d Rybakina said. She admitted to flashbacks from the 2024 Open when she lost the longest women\u2019s tiebreaker ever at a Grand Slam to Anna Blinkova 22-20 in a three-set defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud no matter the situation. It got very tight, I stayed there,\u201d she said of the win over Pegula. \u201dI was fighting for each point.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Pegula, it became a matter of swing or miss out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when you\u2019re on the brink of losing everything you get a little clarity because you\u2019re kind of just like, \u2018Screw it, I\u2019m just going to try and stay in this,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI played a couple of really good points to save the match points, and, you know, she missed a couple short balls … a couple free points to take some pressure off.\u201d<\/p>\n
All four players reached the semifinals without dropping a set \u2014 in Australia for the first time in 56 years \u2014 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. As has become customary for Ukrainians against players from Russia and Belarus, there was no handshakes 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 Cawley and Martina Hingis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible achievement but the job\u2019s not done yet,\u201d an emotional Sabalenka said in her on-court TV interview. \u201cI\u2019ve 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\u2019m glad the level was there. I think I played great tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hindrance call<\/p>\n
The only hiccup was the hindrance to start the fourth game. Hindrance is called for a distraction that prevents a player from making a shot, and can include an opponent\u2019s 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\u2019s when the umpire intervened.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka asked for a video review but, after going to the tape, Azemar Engzell confirmed her decision that the grunt was more elongated than usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s actually never happened to me … especially with my grunting,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cThen she called it, and I was, like, \u2018What? What is wrong with you?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said it worked as motivation \u2014 she broke serve in that game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually helped me \u2014 I was more aggressive. I was not happy with the call, and it really helped me to get that game,\u201d Sabalenka said. She added with a laugh, \u201cSo if she (Azemar Engzell) ever wants to do it again \u2014 like, I want to make sure that she\u2019s not afraid of it \u2014 go ahead, call it. It\u2019s going to help me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rematch<\/p>\n
Rybakina is back into a major final for the first time since \u201823, and says she learned a lot from that match. She\u2019s also coming off a win over Sabalenka in the deciding match of the WTA Finals last November, when she picked up a record $5.2 million in prize money.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could take only positive from that week,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is what I\u2019m trying to do … remembering some good stuff from this WTA Final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Svitolina\u2019s exit<\/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
\u201cDefinitely very, very happy with the two weeks here and in New Zealand, as well, winning,\u201d she said. \u201cGutted to not make it through tonight but it\u2019s very difficult when you\u2019re playing the world No. 1, who is really on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really complicated for me today,\u201d she added, \u201cbut, yeah, I just want to take positives from the past weeks and just carry them through for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP tennis: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/tennis<\/p>\n
John Pye, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Not even a point penalty for hindrance slowed Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s run to a fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,77,82,593],"class_list":["post-441042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-international","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}