Lindsay Davenport knows a thing or two about great tennis when she sees it.
The former world No.1 and three-time Grand Slam champion competed in one of the finest eras of women’s tennis, and since retiring has moved into tennis commentary while also captaining the USA’s Billie Jean King Cup team.
An Australian Open champion in 2000, Davenport has returned to Melbourne this fortnight for the first time in six years.
Watching the women’s tournament unfold, where both Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina have stormed into the final – neither losing a set – to set up a rematch of their AO 2023 classic, Davenport has been impressed with what she’s witnessed.
"I think the physicality of Sabalenka, and everything that she does well, would be overwhelmingly good, whatever era you kind of dropped her into,” Davenport said of the world No.1 in an upcoming episode of The Sit-Down podcast.
"I think the [level of] tennis in the last few years has jumped up a couple of notches again. And I think that the players at the top of women's tennis are so good now – it really is amazing.
"I think Rybakina's level right now, the last six or seven months, has been arguably maybe the best in women's tennis.
"I'm really in awe of the generation that we have playing tennis right now.”
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Sabalenka has maintained an iron grip on the world No.1 ranking thanks to winning her second straight US Open title in September – her fourth Grand Slam trophy – and advancing to a fourth consecutive final at Melbourne Park, where she prevailed in 2023 and 2024.
After beating Elina Svitolina 6-2 6-3 on Thursday evening, the Brisbane International champion extended her winning streak to 11 matches and is now a perfect 22-0 in sets in 2026.
Yet Rybakina’s resurgence has been equally impressive.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion survived a second-set fight-back from Jessica Pegula in Thursday night’s second semifinal to progress to her first Grand Slam final in three years.
She has won 19 of her past 20 matches dating back to October – a run including her victory at the WTA Finals – and after slipping to world No.13 in July, has returned to the top five.
She is projected to rise to world No.3 after the tournament, matching her career-high ranking.
“I love the way she plays. I love the way she's working on things; her forehand's gotten so much better in the last few months,” Davenport said of Rybakina, who has struck a tournament-high 41 aces among women at AO 2026.
"I love that Rybakina has a server's mentality; that was something that is really, I think, forgotten in women's tennis.
“And a lot of women's players don't grow up thinking like, ‘hey, I need to take some pride in holding my serve’. In men's tennis, breaks don't come that often, so they are really always working on their serve and that first shot after the serve, and patterns they want to play. I find a lot of girl junior players, when they come up, it's just like: 'oh I'm gonna get the serve in'.
“So Rybakina, I love the way that she approaches that. I think Sabalenka is quite similar, also. Like, ‘hey, I'm gonna step to the line, I control this shot, I want to win the point on my terms’.”
In their 15th clash, yet only their second at a Grand Slam, Sabalenka and Rybakina will meet in the Australian Open women’s singles final at 7.30pm AEDT on Saturday.
Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 8-6, including wins in both of those Slam meetings.