Jelena Rybakina defeated the world number one.
Jelena Rybakina won the Australian Open singles championship. EPA / AOP
Yelena Rybakina26, toppled the Australian Open in the final Aryna Sabalenkan27, set 2–1 (6–4, 4–6, 6–4).
The victory can be considered a big surprise, because based on the odds, Sabalenka, the number one woman in the world rankings, went into the match as a 60 percent pre-favorite. Rybakina is number five in the world rankings.
The Kazakh received 4.150 million Australian dollars in prize money for his victory, or about 2.44 million euros. Sabalenka received about 1.26 million euros for her second place.
It was Rybakina’s second career Grand Slam title. He has previously won GS tournaments Wimbledon in 2022.
Rybakina is Russian by birth, but she has represented Kazakhstan since 2018.
They meet in the men’s final Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. The match starts at 10:30 Finnish time on Sunday.
