The 24-year-old claimed her first Grand Slam championship Saturday in Melbourne.
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Arnya Sabalenka outlasted Elena Rybakina in three sets to win the Australian Open on Saturday, claiming the first Grand Slam title of her career. Naturally, the 24-year-old had nothing to do but celebrate after the victory in Melbourne, and she did so with a spectacular TikTok after the match.
The viral video began with a close-up on Sabalenka with some perfectly relevant audio playing in the background.
“Anybody who wanted to know what I would do if I didn’t win…” the audio began. “I guess we’ll never know.”
At that point, Sabalenka turned the camera to reveal that she was holding the Australian Open trophy and celebrating with her team, who began jumping up and down and cheering.
Sabalenka, a Belarus native, got all she could handle from Rybakina–the defending Wimbledon champion–but managed to scrape out a 4–6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. The match closed out a dominant tournament for the fifth-ranked player in the world, in which she dropped just one set.
“We’ve been through a lot of, I would say, downs last year,” Sabalenka said to her team after the match. “We worked so hard and you guys deserve this trophy. It’s more about you than it’s about me.”
With her second victory already in 2022, Sabalenka is now poised to rise to the No. 2 ranking after her Australian Open title.
