{"id":440695,"date":"2026-01-31T10:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440695\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T10:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:59:08","slug":"australian-open-live-sabalenka-rybakina-battling-in-deciding-set-for-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/440695\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open live: Sabalenka, Rybakina battling in deciding set for title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan 31, 2026, 05:38 AM ET<\/p>\n

MELBOURNE, Australia — Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> and fifth-seed Elena Rybakina<\/a> will battle for the Australian Open title on Saturday evening, in a rematch of the 2023 decider Down Under.<\/p>\n

Both Sabalenka and Rybakina have been in scintillating form en route to the final; neither player dropping a set this tournament and both responsible for sending three seeds packing.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Related<\/p>\n

For Sabalenka, she is seeking a third title at Melbourne Park in four years and an overall fifth Grand Slam triumph. Rybakina, meanwhile, will be looking to add the Australian Open title to the Wimbledon crown she won in 2022 over Ons Jabeur<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic<\/a> and world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> advanced to the men’s final after both prevailed in epic five-set matches.<\/p>\n

Djokovic wound back the clock to stun reigning champion Jannik Sinner<\/a> 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in four hours and nine minutes, while Alcaraz overcame cramps and injury to defeat third-seed Alexander Zverev<\/a> 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-7(4), 7-5 in a match that lasted five hours and 27 minutes, the third-longest in tournament history.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned as ESPN’s team of reporters bring you all of the latest news, results, highlights, and much more from women’s final night at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan 31, 2026, 05:38 AM ET MELBOURNE, Australia — Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and fifth-seed Elena Rybakina will battle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-440695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}