Sabalenka, Rybakina march into Australian Open final showdown

Aryna Sabalenka

Elena Rybakina

MELBOURNE, AFP: Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina will clash in what promises to be a bruising Australian Open final on Saturday after both won in straight sets in the last four.

Big-serving Wimbledon Champion Rybakina defeated two-time Melbourne winner Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 at a blustery and chilly Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Thursday.

Powerful Belarusian Sabalenka then marched into the championship match with a 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 win over unseeded Magda Linette.

The 24-year-old Sabalenka will be contesting her first Grand Slam final.

The fifth seed has battled nerves in big matches previously and worked with a sports psychologist, but said after dismissing the Pole that both were a thing of the past.

Sabalenka has been in the form of her life since arriving in Australia.

She won the Adelaide International warm-up tournament and has now extended her unbeaten streak to 10 matches, not losing a single set in any of them.

Reigning Wimbledon Champion Rybakina, 23, said she hoped she had made her watching family proud after another impressive display.

The Moscow-born Kazakh prevailed in 1-hour-41-minute against the 2012 and 2013 Champion Azarenka of Belarus to account for a third major winner in as many matches.

The 22nd seed Rybakina had already defeated reigning French and US Open Champion Iga Swiatek in the fourth round and 2017 Roland Garros winner Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals.