Elena Rybakina triumphs in WTA Finals, beats Aryna Sabalenka in final

Elena Rybakina, world number 6, defeated Belarusian women’s tennis number 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the final with a score of 6-3 7-6 thus winning the WTA Finals for the first time in her career on the indoor concrete in Riyadh.

In the first set Rybakina misses a break point in the second game, nullifies one on 2-2 and on 3-2 breaks Sabalenka’s serve to zero, on 4-2 recovers from 15-40 and shortly afterwards closes the partial victoriously.

Sabalenka cancels two more consecutive break points at 1-1 in the second set and then saves from 15-40 at 4-4. At 5-4 she has two consecutive set poiints, Rybakina cancels them and it goes to the tie-break which the Russian-Kazakh literally dominates 7-0.

One hour and 47 minutes the duration of the match with Rybakina raising to the sky her 11th career major circuit trophy, the third this year, the most prestigious since her triumph at Wimbledon in 2022, and on Monday she will end the year at No. 5. Sabalenka, on the other hand, remains firmly at the top.