Aryna Sabalenka says he could have been a bit ‘more aggressive’ with her serve whilst she was up a break in the deciding set during her loss against Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final.
The Belarusian was seeking her third Melbourne title in the last four years, after having fallen at the same stage to Madison Keys in 2025.
However, it was Rybakina who prevailed 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to collect her second major trophy and further close the head-to-head with Sabalenka to 8-7 in the latter’s favour.
The Kazakh got off to a flying start by breaking in a crucial opening game, with the world No 1 unable to break back.
However, after the slow start, Sabalenka held serve for 11 consecutive service games to go up 3-0 in the third.
That is where the good fortune would end as Rybakina stormed back to break her opponent in her two subsequent games, before serving it out on the first time of asking.
“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,” remarked Sabalenka during her post-match press conference.
“She was serving, so it was just one break. 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.”
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Despite Sabalenka’s Grand Slam success, she has been on the losing end of three of her last four Grand Slam finals.
Last season, after her loss to Keys in Melbourne, she was defeated by Coco Gauff in a three-set battle at the French Open.
Nearly every statistic ended identically for Rybakina and Sabalenka, with the only material difference being the Belarusian’s disappointing break point conversion of two out of her eight opportunities.
The two-time Grand Slam champion was only slightly ahead with three out of her eight.
“No, I feel like, yeah, overall it was much better than last year, two finals I lost,” Sabalenka anaysed.
“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.”
Sabalenka will next play at the WTA 1000 event in Doha from February8 – 14, which she last won in 2020.
“Right now I don’t want to think about tennis, but my ambitions are still the same,” Sabalenka said.
“Keep fighting, keep working hard, keep putting myself out there, and try my best if I’ll have another chance in the final.”
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