Australian Open 2023: Meet the women's singles finalists
What's the story
Fifth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka will cross swords with 22nd-seeded Elena Rybakina in the women's singles final at Australian Open 2023 on Saturday.
Sabalenka, who will play her 20th career WTA final, hasn't dropped a set so far in the tournament. She plays her maiden Grand Slam final.
Rybakina, the reigning Wimbledon champion, will mark her second Slam final appearance.
We look at the key stats.
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Here's their head-to-head
Sabalenka has a 3-0 win-loss record over Rybakina in their WTA Tour head-to-head. The duo last met in the R16 of 2021 Wimbledon, with the former winning in three sets.
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A winning streak of 10 matches
Sabalenka has had a dominating start to the season. The Belarusian is 10-0 in 2023 so far. She won the Adelaide International 1 title, beating Linda Noskova in the final summit clash of the WTA 500 event.
Sets
Sabalenka has won career-best 20 successive sets
Sabalenka is yet to lose a set in 2023, having won a career-best 20 consecutive sets on the WTA Tour.
She has won each of her 10 matches so far in straight sets.
As per Opta, Sabalenka is the third woman in this century to win her first 10 matches without dropping a set after Anna Smashnova in 2002 and Agnieszka Radwanska in 2013.
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Sabalenka's 20th career WTA final
Sabalenka downed Magda Linette 7-6(1), 6-2 to reach her 20th career WTA final and the first at a Grand Slam. She is an 11-time singles titlist. She has a 14-5 record at AO, while the tally reads 42-19 across Slams.
2023
Rybakina has a 7-2 record in 2023
Rybakina beat two-time Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka 7-6(4), 6-3 to reach her maiden AO final.
She now has a 10-3 win-loss record in Melbourne.
She has reached her second final at Grand Slams, having won the 2022 Wimbledon crown.
Overall, she now has a 30-12 win-loss record across Slams. Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Kazakh has a 7-2 record in singles in 2023.
Feat
Rybakina owns a distinguishable feat
As per Opta, Rybakina has become the first woman to defeat three former Grand Slam champions (Iga Swiatek, Jelena Ostapenko, and Azarenka) in an Australian Open edition since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 (Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, and Monica Seles).
She has dropped just one set en route to the AO final.
Rybakina had dropped just one set till the 2022 Wimbledon final as well.