Rybakina marches into Australian Open final after proving too strong for Azarenka

Elena Rybakina proved too good and too strong for Victoria Azarenka on Thursday as the Wimbledon champion booked her place in the Australian Open final with a straight-sets victory inside Rod Laver Arena.

Aiming to reach her second Grand Slam final in the past three events, Rybakina defeated the two-time Australian Open winner 7-6, 6-3. The Kazakh 22nd seed, who earned no ranking points at Wimbledon due to the tournament's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players, will face either fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka or unseeded Magda Linette in Saturday's final.

Rybakina added to what already was an impressive run through a string of top opponents. Azarenka, the champion at Melbourne Park in 2012 and 2013, joined a list of players eliminated by Rybakina over the past two weeks that includes world No 1 Iga Swiatek, 17th-ranked Jelena Ostapenko, and 2022 Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins.

As usual, Rybakina did it with her powerful serve – firing nine aces to bring her total to a tournament-high 44 – and stinging groundstrokes that she used to close points seemingly at will. The performance was particularly noteworthy against a returner and defender as established on hard courts as Azarenka, a former world No 1 and a three-time runner-up at the US Open.

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