{"id":441891,"date":"2026-01-30T00:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441891\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:16:10","slug":"daily-download-your-rapid-recap-of-day-12-at-ao-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441891\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily Download: Your rapid recap of Day 12 at AO 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> proved yet again the Australian Open is her happiest of hunting grounds by returning to her fourth straight final at Melbourne Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By ending the heartwarming run of Elina Svitolina<\/a>, Sabalenka made possible a dream rematch of the AO 2023 final against Elena Rybakina, who in Thursday night\u2019s second semifinal confirmed it by overcoming a gallant Jessica Pegula<\/a> in what she described as an \u201cepic\u201d tiebreak.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka won that titanic 2023 clash for her first major title, and has since hoisted three more Slam trophies to establish herself as the game\u2019s dominant world No.1.<\/p>\n

The reigning US Open champion becomes the just the second woman in the history of Melbourne Park to reach four straight AO finals after Martina Hingis, and joins Hingis and Steffi Graf as the only women in the Open era to reach the finals at seven consecutive hard-court majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would never think that I would be able to, first of all, make it to the top 10, and secondly to be that consistent, and be able to play on such big arenas,\u201d an emotional Sabalenka said on court<\/a>. \u201cEvery day I\u2019m grateful for everything I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rybakina, meanwhile, continues her resurgence, storming into the first major final<\/a> since three years earlier at this very venue.<\/p>\n

Like Sabalenka, she\u2019s yet to drop a set this fortnight, making this the first time since Wimbledon 2008 that two women\u2019s Slam finalists have progressed to the title match without surrendering one.<\/p>\n

She prevented the dogged Pegula \u2013 who saved three match points before earning two set points in the breaker \u2013 from reaching her second major final, while at the same time advancing to her third.<\/p>\n

As Rybakina and Sabalenka returned to the final in Melbourne, a legendary pair of wheelchair stars, surprisingly, did not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

British duo Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid were stunned in the semifinals by Tokito Oda and Gustavo Fernandez in a match tiebreak, ending their quest for a staggering seventh consecutive AO men\u2019s wheelchair doubles title.<\/p>\n

In singles, all the usual suspects advanced, with icons Yui Kamiji, Diede de Groot, Sam Schroder, Niels Vink, plus Oda and Hewett, all powering into the semifinals<\/a> as the wheelchair championships approach their thrilling pointy end.<\/p>\n

Australian fans had plenty to cheer about at Melbourne Park on Thursday when wildcards Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans advanced<\/a> to the men\u2019s doubles final.<\/p>\n

Their three-set win over Luke Johnson and Jan Zielinski<\/a> at Rod Laver Arena means Kubler is now one victory away from repeating as an AO doubles champion, after his 2023 title with Rinky Hijikata.<\/p>\n

And with Olivia Gadecki and John Peers appearing in the mixed doubles final for the second year running, the host nation improves its chances of having yet another home-grown champion in at least one event \u2013 a record intact since 2011.<\/p>\n

Kubler and Polmans will meet sixth seeds Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski in the final, while the women\u2019s decider pits fourth seeds Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai against No.7 seeds Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, junior action continued, with French third seed Ksenia Efremova and No.2 seed Luis Guto Miguel rounding out the quarterfinals in the girls\u2019 and boys\u2019 singles respectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka proved yet again the Australian Open is her happiest of hunting grounds by returning to her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-441891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441891","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=441891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}