{"id":447065,"date":"2026-02-01T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/447065\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T11:04:10","slug":"australian-open-champion-elena-rybakina-stood-by-her-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/447065\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina Stood by Her Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 There are two moments from Elena Rybakina\u2019s resounding comeback win over Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday night\u2019s Australian Open final that I think I will remember for a long time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Elena Rybakina with her second major trophy. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg for Bounces)<\/p>\n

The first was a backhand that Rybakina cracked down the line trailing 3-1, 15-30 in the critical fifth game of the third set. Falling to her left as she hit the shot, Rybakina used her left arm to pull the two-handed shot back into the court. When it landed well inside the lines of the open corner of Sabalenka\u2019s court for a clean winner to set up break point, Rybakina curled that left hand into a rare fist pump.<\/p>\n

Rybakina converted that ensuing break point to turn the momentum fully in her favor; after losing five straight games to lose the second set and go down 0-3 in the third, Rybakina won five games in a row to put herself up 5-3. She served out the victory on her first attempt with an ace, sealing a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory for her second major title. She smiled slightly and clenched her fist, which is as big a celebration as you\u2019ll ever see from her.<\/p>\n

The second moment, which I know for certain will linger, happened in the trophy ceremony<\/a>: Stefano Vukov, Rybakina\u2019s longtime coach, walking up onto the AO-shaped rostrum to accept the trophy which the tournament presents to the champion\u2019s coach.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley, champion Elena Rybakina, runner-up Aryna Sabalenka, tournament referee Wayne McKewen, referee Tom Sweeney, and Rybakina\u2019s coach Stefano Vukov. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg for Bounces) <\/p>\n

That stage might\u2019ve only been a few short steps away for Vukov during Saturday night\u2019s ceremony, but it was a remarkable milestone for his journey and Rybakina\u2019s: only one year ago at the Australian Open, Vukov was banned from setting foot on the tournament grounds whatsoever.<\/p>\n

To read more of the past, present, and future of Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina\u2019s much-discussed relationship with her coach Stefano Vukov, please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben<\/p>\n

\u201cAny situation like that knocks you off-balance. And it was a very unpleasant experience. But I learned a lot from it.\u201d
\u2014Elena Rybakina, after her Australian Open win, on the consequences of the investigation into Vukov.<\/p>\n

Give a gift subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 There are two moments from Elena Rybakina\u2019s resounding comeback win over Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-447065","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\/447065","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=447065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}