Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina plays in her second final in the past three Grand Slam tournaments when she meets No. 5 Aryana Sabalenka for the Australian Open championship. They are two of the hardest-hitting players in tennis. Saturday s contest is the first Grand Slam final of Sabalenka s career. She is 10-0 in 2023, winning all 20 sets. Sabalenka has won all three previous matches she and Rybakina have played each other. All went to three sets. They last met in 2021. Jason Kubler and Rinky Hijikata will play Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski in the men s doubles final.
Professional tennis has always been influenced by the seismic events of the world in which it operates.
Four days after a local COVID-19 situation, despite widespread uncertainty, the world’s best players remain gathered together on an island in the Asia-Pacific. The last time they staged a Grand Slam – back in the fall of 2020 – something miraculous happened. An unseeded Polish teenager ran the table at Roland Garros with an almost frightening fortnight of focus.
For everyone involved in this Australian Open, that’s precisely what it’s going to take.
It promises to be another volatile and wildly unpredictable event. With so many top players in extended action the week going in, with some quarantine questions still unanswered, nothing is unimaginable. Still, the goal remains the same: A victory here in 2021’s first major would be the best possible start to the Porsche Race to Shenzhen.