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Elena Rybakina wins the 2026 Australian Open title: Key stats
31 Jan 2026

Women's singles tennis star and 5th seed, Elena Rybakina, has won the 2026 Australian Open title.

She defeated world number one and top seed, Aryna Sabalenka, in straight sets at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday.

Rybakina, who won the 2025 season-ending WTA Finals crown by defeating Sabalenka in the final, pulled off another heist by beating the tournament favorite.

She won 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Maiden AO crown and 2nd Grand Slam honor for Rybakina
Rybakina

Rybakina has won her maiden Australian Open honor.

Before this, she had reached the final here in 2023 before losing against Sabalenka.

By winning this year's event, Rybakina is now 27-6 at the Australian Open.

Meanwhile, this is Rybakina's 2nd Grand Slam title. She had won the 2022 Wimbledon.

Overall at Grand Slams, Rybakina is 72-22. She appeared in her 3rd Slam final.

Sabalenka loses her 2nd successive final at AO
Sabalenka

Sabalenka featured in her 4th successive final at AO.

She won the title here in 2023 and 2024 before losing to Madison Keys in three sets last year.

She is 34-7 at the Australian Open.

Overall at Grand Slams, Sabalenka owns a win-loss record of 106-27.

Notably, this was her 8th Slam final. She owns a 4-4 win-loss record in Slam finals.

H2H record: Rybakina is 7-8 against Sabalenka
Fact

This was the 15th meeting between the pair on the WTA Tour. Rybakina won her 7th tie against Sabalenka, who leads the H2H 8-7. On outdoor hard courts, the H2H record now stands at 5-5 between the two.

Rybakina enters record books
Records

As per Opta, Rybakina is the first player to claim the women's singles title at AO with three top-6 defeated in QF (Swiatek), SF (Pegula) and F (Sabalenka) since Maria Sharapova in 2008.

Rybakina is the sixth player in the Open Era to win her first two Slams on hard and grass court after Amelie Mauresmo, Lindsay Davenport, Sharapova, Martina Hingis and Venus Williams.

Rybakina attains these unique feats
Records (2)

Rybakina is now the player with the highest winning percentage against the World No. 1 since the WTA Rankings were firstly published in 1975 (60.0%, 9-6) - minimum 10 meetings.

Since the WTA Rankings were published, only Serena Williams (8 times) and Venus (4) have defeated more often both World Nos. 1 and 2 at a single WTA event than Rybakina (3).

Rybakina becomes 6th player to clock this record
Fact

As per Opta, Rybakina is the sixth player this century to claim 10+ consecutive WTA top-10 wins after Justine Henin, Serena, Venus, Amelie Mauresmo and Iga Swiatek.