Newly-crowned Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka and her first Grand Slam trophy went on a boat tour of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne on Sunday morning.
The world No.5, who will now return to her career-high ranking of No.2, is wearing a baby pink linen outfit with floral applique details by Zimmermann, a luxury Australian fashion label.
“Wooow guys…what just happened?” the 24-year-old Sabalenka wrote on Instagram. “I have a fear that this was all a dream and I’m about to wake up. It’s all still sinking in, but I could not be happier in this moment.”
Sabalenka is yet to lose a match this season, boasting a 11-0 win-loss record in 2023. The only set she lost was against reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final.
After the triumph, Sabalenka recreated the iconic acceptance speech of Kanye West from the 2005 Grammy Awards: “Everybody wants to know what I would do if I didn’t win, I guess we’ll never know.”
View this post on Instagram
One thing we noticed is that the three-letter abbreviation of Belarus is not engraved next to Aryna Sabalenka’s name on the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. It’s because Sabalenka, like all the other Belarusian, and Russian players, was competing under neutral flag at the Australian Open, due to political reasons.
View this post on Instagram
Is that Aryna’s dog at the back of the boat? Ahhh, come on, engrave (BLR) by her name.