Rybakina blows away Sabalenka in Brisbane, wins sixth title

Elena Rybakina, the second seed, won the Brisbane Open trophy by defeating Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the top seed, 6-0, 6-3 at the Queensland Tennis Center on Sunday night.

For Rybakina, it was one of the best performances of her career, with the Kazakh playing near-perfect tennis across the course of the one hour, 10 minute match.

“No matter the result, we always push each other,” a humble Rybakina said after the match, before declaring that she’ll be back in Brisbane this time next year to defend her title.

Flawless Rybakina charges into Australian Open contention

Sabalenka was on a 15-match winning streak coming into the Brisbane Open final, but Rybakina played with complete disregard for the defending Australian Open champion’s record.

The Kazakh raced through the first set without the loss of a single game, committing just one unforced error as she blew Sabalenka off the court with her consistency. The world number two managed to eek out three games in the second set, but the damage was already done as Rybakina kept the pressure on and closed out the match.

The win is Rybakina’s sixth WTA Tour title, with the world number four dropping only 15 games across the entire tournament. She now heads to Adelaide, where she’ll be a hot favourite.

Sabalenka was able to retain her sense of humour after the thrashing, saying in her post-match comments:

“That was an interesting match… Thank you for those three games at least! To my team, you did a bad job today. 6-0, 6-3, that’s all your fault guys.”

Earlier in the tournament, Rybakina, ranked No 4, beat Australian qualifier Olivia Gadecki (6-4, 6-1), Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 13 seed (6-1, 6-0), Russian Anastasia Potapova, the No 11 seed (6-1 ret.) and Linda Noskova (6-3, 6-2).

Sabalenka, ranked No 2, defeated Italian Lucia Bronzetti (6-3, 6-0), Chinese Lin Zhu, the No 15 seed (6-1, 6-0), Russian Daria Kasatkina, the No 5 seed (6-1, 6-4) and No 8 seed Victoria Azarenka (6-2, 6-4) in the previous rounds of the Brisbane tournament.

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