RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Elena Rybakina defeated No. 1 ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (0) to win the WTA Finals on Saturday.
Rybakina, ranked No. 6, made eight aces on Riyadh’s indoor laborious courts and earned the one break of the match.
“It has been an unimaginable week,” Rybakina stated of her quest for the title, which included wins over second seeds Iga Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova and Jessica Pegula. “Truthfully, I wasn’t anticipating the consequence, nevertheless it’s simply unimaginable that I’ve made it this far.”
It was Sabalenka’s second loss within the remaining of the ultimate match of the season, after the Grand Slam champion misplaced to Caroline Garcia within the 2022 title match.
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion from Kazakhstan, was enjoying her first title match in her third consecutive WTA Finals look.
She went 5-0 within the top-eight girls’s occasion and raised $5.23 million. In response to the WTA, that is the best quantity in girls’s sports activities historical past. Sabalenka entered the match with an 8-5 lead over her opponent and gained $2.7 million because the runner-up.
Rybakina broke within the first set to take a 4-2 lead, earlier than Sabalenka saved 4 break factors within the second set to power a tiebreak. The Belarusian entered this 12 months’s tiebreak with a document of twenty-two wins and a pair of losses, however misplaced the match in a shutout after hitting a protracted backhand return on match level.
Rybakina, 26, recorded her tour-best forty fifth win on laborious courts this season. She grew to become the primary girl to win the WTA Finals for the tenth consecutive 12 months and completed the 12 months in fifth place, a career-high, with a document of 58 wins and 19 losses, together with three titles.
Sabalenka will likely be ranked primary for the second consecutive season. This 12 months, he gained 4 titles, together with the US Open, and achieved 63 wins. She additionally reached the finals of the French Open and the Australian Open.
“She performed nice,” Sabalenka stated of Rybakina. “I really feel like I did my finest as we speak. Though it did not work out, I believe there’s loads to be happy with. And yeah, I am leaving this match with no disappointments.”
