On a spectacular Saturday at Melbourne Park, Elena Rybakina defeated world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in a gripping 6-4 4-6 6-4 women’s singles final to avenge her loss in the AO 2023 decider.
The 26-year-old’s maiden AO title is her second major following her triumph at Wimbledon 2022.
“It was a very close match in 2023. I felt that if I get my chances here that I need to maybe risk a little bit more and go for my shots,” the triumphant Rybakina said.
Sabalenka, who squandered a 3-0 lead in the final set, paid tribute to her conqueror. “Even in this final I feel like I played great. I was fighting. I did my best, and today she was a better player,” the AO 2023 and 2024 champion said.
Earlier, Elise Mertens and Shuai Zhang defeated Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic to secure the AO 2026 women’s doubles crown.
The Belgian-Chinese pairing bounced back from a 1-4 deficit to triumph 7-6(4) 6-4 and were presented their trophy by Australia’s Samantha Stosur, who lifted AO 2019 and 2021 US Open titles with Zhang. “Today, for me, it’s really special because Sam is on court,” Zhang said.
Belgium produced even more champions on Saturday: Luna Gryp won the junior girls’ wheelchair singles title, while Alexander Lantermann earned the junior boys’ wheelchair singles title.
The AO 2026 men’s doubles title was won by sixth seeds Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski, who overcame Australian wildcards Jason Kubler and Marc Polmans 7-6(4) 6-4. It’s a full-circle moment for the American-British combination, who played their first tournament together in 2013.
In women’s wheelchair action, third seed Xiaohui Li celebrated a maiden Grand Slam singles title by defeating Diede de Groot and denying the Dutchwoman her 24th major crown. The Chinese third seed is just the third player from her nation to win a singles Grand Slam title in any discipline, joining AO 2014 and Roland Garros 2011 women’s singles champion Li Na and Wang Ziying, who won the Wimbledon 2025 women’s wheelchair singles crown.
Japan’s Tokito Oda made history by capturing the men’s wheelchair singles title. The 19-year-old is the youngest man to concurrently hold all four Grand Slam titles across any format of professional tennis.
In quad wheelchair singles, Niels Vink completed a career Grand Slam after overcoming countryman and rival Sam Schroder to lift the AO 2026 men’s title. The trophy is the 23-year-old Vink’s second at the Happy Slam – on Friday, he teamed up with Guy Sasson to clinch the men’s quad wheelchair doubles title.
Sisters and top seeds Alena and Jana Kovackova triumphed in an all-Czech AO 2026 junior girls’ doubles final, making it back-to-back major titles following their US Open 2025 doubles championship.
The junior boys’ doubles title was earned by Connor Doig and Dimitar Kisimov, a South African-Bulgarian pairing who defeated Australian wildcards Ymerali Ibraimi and Cooper Kose.
Elsewhere, Slovenian seventh seed Ziga Sesko upset third seed Ryo Tabata to advance to Sunday’s junior boys’ singles final, where he’ll face American fourth seed Keaton Hance. And in junior girls’ singles competition, Ekaterina Tupitsyna upset American eighth seed Thea Frodin and will duel against Czech third seed Ksenia Efremova for the title.