The ‘moment of truth’ to crown women’s champ

Sabalenka and Rybakina are among the most powerful players on tour, using big serves and groundstrokes to overwhelm opponents.

It’s a style that evokes the way the Williams sisters went about winning when they began to transform the sport – and rather different from the way the current No.1, Iga Swiatek, and her predecessor, the retired Ash Barty, went about things.

Sabalenka’s forehand is particularly fearsome and her biggest weapon against Rybakina.

“It’s awesome,” Masur said.

“But as big as it is, she’s actually playing a little bit within herself. She’s not on the red line. And I think in the past, that’s actually been a problem.

“Plenty of winners but a lot of unforced errors. And when they come on top of a few double faults, the mind races and everything gets a little bit quicker.

‘Big test’ facing Sabalenka in final

“And her go to has always been to hit harder. Now it’s controlled aggression.

“I’ve even seen some really nice forays to the net. I’ve seen her using the drop shot when she’s got her opponent pushed back so she’s added layers to her game.”

Rybakina, 23, was born in Moscow and began representing Kazakhstan in 2018 when that country offered to fund her tennis career.

Rybakina unpacks semi win

“For me, this time, I would say it was a bit easier, compared to Wimbledon, when I was playing for the first time quarters, semis, final,” Rybakina said.

Her run at Melbourne Park includes victories over three-time slam winner Swiatek, two-time AO champion Victoria Azarenka, 2017 Roland-Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko and Danielle Collins, the runner-up to Barty in Australia last year.

“You don’t get a lot of emotion on the court and you don’t get a lot out of her in the post-match interview or the press conference,” Masur said.

“She’s pretty flat line and maybe that helps, but wow she’s got game.

“I love her serve, it is the best serve technically . It’s not going to break down whereas Sabalenka does have a little hitch at the back of her serve.

“There’s no question about that. So technically, I give the advantage to Rybakina.”

Rybakina powers into final

But both finalists are capable of terrific serving, which was not always the case for Sabalenka.

She has won a tournament high 89 per cent of her service games, holding in 49 of 55, meaning she has been broken an average of just once per match.

It’s a significant development for someone who struggled mightily with double faulting last year, accumulating nearly 400 over the course of the season, including more than 20 in some matches.

Sabalenka reflects on semi win

But Sabalenka reworked the mechanics on her serve during a five day session less than a month before the US Open, where she got to the semi-finals.

Both players tend to seek to put an end to points with quick strikes from the baseline.

Sabalenka has managed to keep the ledger tilted quite a bit in her favour, accumulating 196 winners (32.7 per match) and 136 unforced errors (22.7 per match).

Rybakina’s numbers are more even, averaging 26.3 winners and 24.8 unforced errors.

This will be their fourth head-to-head meeting, and Sabalenka is 3-0 so far, winning each in three sets, although they haven’t played each other since Wimbledon in 2021.

Since then, Sabalenka’s coach Anton Dubrov observed: “Aryna lost her serve. Then she found the serve. Meanwhile, Rybakina won a slam. They both kind of came here from different directions. So I would say… all previous matches don’t matter at all. It’s going to be something really new.”

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