Aryna Sabalenka’s quest to regain her Australian Open crown was thwarted at the very end, as she was beaten earlier today by Elena Rybakina in the final.
It was an enthralling affair between two of the sport’s heaviest hitters.
As such, it remained incredibly tight throughout, with neither woman willing to give an inch as they went for outlandish winners, and so often made them.
Alas, in the end, it was the cool and relaxed Kazakh who came out on top, leaving Aryna Sabalenka to pick up the pieces after yet another loss in a Grand Slam final.
Aryna Sabalenka admits she has regrets after the Australian Open final
Speaking at her post-match press conference, reporters offered their commiserations before swiftly getting down to business.
Sabalenka was then asked if she had any regrets after her loss to Elena Rybakina, to which she briefly pondered before answering: “I think it was, like, really aggressive tennis overall the whole match, and I feel like in that moment she kind of like had nothing to lose, so she stepped in and she played incredible points. She was serving, so it was just one break.
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“Probably I should — I mean, I don’t know if I have any regrets. Maybe I should have tried to be more aggressive on my serve, knowing that I have a break and put pressure on her, but she played incredible.
“She made some winners. I made a couple of unforced errors. Of course, I have regrets. You know, when you lead 3-Love, and then it felt like in a few seconds it was 3-4, and I was down with a break. So it was very fast.
“Great tennis from her. Maybe not so smart for me, but as I say, today I’m a loser, maybe tomorrow I’m a winner, maybe again a loser. Hopefully not. Let’s see.”
Sabalenka sent a message to Rybakina in her on-court interview, praising her opponent for a rock-solid display on the biggest stage.
Aryna Sabalenka names the huge improvement she made already
Although the record will show another final loss for Sabalenka, she remained upbeat while analysing the loss.
In fact, when asked about what she felt went wrong and if it related to any of her struggles in the past, the 27-year-old was indignant in her response.
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She claimed: “No, I feel like, yeah, overall it was much better than last year, two finals I lost. Level-wise and decision that I was making and the way that the mentality was throughout the whole match that I was still there, I was ready to fight, I knew that she’s not going to give it easily to me.
“So I think overall I made huge improvement on that, and I still lost it. But it’s okay. I feel like I’m moving towards the right direction.”
Chris Evert rated the level of women’s tennis after watching that Australian Open final, and feels that the sport is in safe hands with these two.
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