Australian Open 2026: Aryna Sabalenka faces Elena Rybakina in the Melbourne final

Rybakina reached her first major final since Sabalenka claimed a three-set victory to lift her maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne three years ago.

The fifth-seeded Kazakh will relish the chance of a rematch, having won each of her last nine matches against fellow top-10 players, including world number two Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals and now sixth seed Pegula.

Rybakina appeared poised to make a quiet progress to the final after clinching the first set with an emphatic forehand and maintaining momentum by breaking serve early in the second set.

The rare moment of encouragement for Pegula did not last long, as Rybakina responded to the first loss on her serve by immediately breaking her serve to lead 5-3.

But there were more fluctuations to come as Pegula evaded three match points on her serve before taking advantage of a poor game from Rybakina to level at 5-5 and seal a dramatic scoreline.

Rybakina again reset herself impressively to create a second chance for victory, only for the surging Pegula to force a tiebreak.

In keeping with previous matches, the tiebreaker swung back and forth, but Rybakina held her nerve with two set points and claimed her fourth match point with a backhand winner.

No player on the WTA Tour has more wins than Rybakina since the end of Wimbledon last year (37), with the only defeat in her last 20 matches coming to Karolina Muchova in Brisbane earlier this month.