KAZAKHSTANI TENNIS PLAYER Elena Rybakina has won the women’s single title at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Belarussian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka, 27, faced off against Rybakina, 26, in the Rod Laver Arena in a 2 hour 18 minute match.

Rybakina beat Sabalenka 6-4 in the first set, lost the second set 4-6, and won the third set 6-4.

Both players won the exact same number of points in the thrilling match.

The pairing was a repeat of the 2023 Australian Open singles final for world number one Sabalenka and fifth seed Rybakina. Sabalenka took home the ladies single title in the 2023 match.

Elena Rybakina, right, of Kazakhstan is congratulated by Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus following the women's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

This win will be the second Grand Slam title Rybakina has taken home.

Rybakina who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022.

It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open last year for the second time but lost the French Open and Melbourne title deciders.

She was into her fourth Australian Open final in a row and had been imperious until now, with tears in her eyes at the end.

With the roof on because of drizzle in Melbourne, Rybakina immediately broke serve and then comfortably held for 2-0.

Rybakina faced two break points at 4-3, but found her range with her serve to send down an ace and dig herself out of trouble, leaving Sabalenka visibly frustrated.

Rybakina looked in the zone and wrapped up the set in 37 minutes on her first set point when Sabalenka fired long.

Incredibly, it was the first set Sabalenka had dropped in 2026.

The second game of the second set was tense, Rybakina saving three break points in a 10-minute arm-wrestle.

They went with serve and the seventh game was another tussle, Sabalenka holding for 4-3 after the best rally of a cagey affair.

The tension ratcheted up and the top seed quickly forged three set points at 5-4 on the Kazakh’s serve, ruthlessly levelling the match at the first chance to force a deciding set.

Sabalenka was now in the ascendancy and smacked a scorching backhand to break for a 2-0 lead, then holding for 3-0.

Rybakina, who also had not dropped a set in reaching the final, looked unusually rattled.

She reset to hold, then wrestled back the break, allowing herself the merest of smiles.

At 3-3 the title threatened to swing either way.

But a surging Rybakina won a fourth game in a row to break for 4-3, then held to put a thrilling victory within sight.

Rybakina sealed the championship with her sixth ace of the match.

The finalists were familiar foes having met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of them.

Sabalenka came into the final as favourite but Rybakina has been one of the form players on the women’s tour in recent months.

She also defeated Sabalenka in the decider at the season-ending WTA Finals.

Rybakina beat second seed Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals and sixth seed Jessica Pegula in the last four in Melbourne.

Rybakina switched to play under the Kazakh flag in 2018 when she was a little-known 19-year-old, citing financial reasons.

With additional reporting from AFP.