Aryna Sabalenka lifted the Baccarat trophy at the BNP Paribas Open in her third final, defeating Elena Rybakina 3-6 6-3 7-6(6). In a topsy-turvy match fought out under unrelenting sun, the world No. 1 saved 6 of 9 break points, her opponent 5 of 8. At any given moment, the nail-biter match felt like it could go either way. In the third set, the top seed surged to a 5-3 lead, but couldn’t hold on and proceeded to drop the next three games.
In the third set tiebreak, Rybakina, the new world No. 2 who came into the tournament ranked third, served for the championship up 6-5. She served out wide, but Sabalenka was ready with a daring cross-court backhand. In the winner’s press conference, the Belarusian explained it was from having rewatched her lost Australian Open championship point countless times:
“I was standing there thinking, okay, I’ve got to cover a wide serve, and I left T serve for her to ace it or whatever. So lucky me, she served wide again and I just covered that side. And doesn’t matter how fast the serve is, I know that I can block it and I can return. So I got super lucky in that point. I pulled out two really great shots and I feel like that was the moment that gave me so much mental power.”
When Sabalenka regained the upper hand and served for the match, Rybakina returned a powerful serve long on the final point. The match, which went on over 2 hours and 30 minutes, was contested under the worst conditions the desert could throw at them. Sabalenka said, “It was super hot. I was dying there in the tiebreak, but I also saw that she was also not feeling her best. So I was trying to push myself basically to the limit.”
The two of them have played each other sixteen times now, but the runner-up saw this particular match as different altogether. She told media, “The third set, it was fight with the conditions, with the opponent, with yourself at some point. It wasn’t easy with such heat.”
The 26-year-old Rybakina had played more evening matches and saw that as a liability going into the sweltering 11 am match. She said, “I’m happy that I played the other matches kind of later, but there is also a moment where I maybe didn’t get used to such hot conditions and morning matches.” Adding, “It’s at some point good to not play in the morning and play last match, but at the same time you are not really adapting as quick.”
With the Miami Open starting up, the players are poised to head to the airport tonight. While the champion’s athletic trainer told Women’s Tennis Blog that they would likely have to do some of the recovery work en route, Sabalenka shared another idea at the press conference: “A couple espresso martinis and Five Guys to go. Basically, that’s why I’m never in good shape, because it’s Five Guys and espresso martinis in celebration.”
