TENNIS: Sabalenka rues another Melbourne Park miss as hardcourt aura fades

MELBOURNE- Following two years of triumph at the Australian Open, Aryna Sabalenka is now processing two years of pain.

A year on from losing the final in three sets to American Madison Keys, Sabalenka fell 6-4 4-6 6-4 to Elena Rybakina on Saturday, the Russia-born Kazakh turning the tables on the Belarusian who beat her for the 2023 title.

While the Keys shock left Sabalenka inconsolable and her racket in pieces, defeat to fifth seed Rybakina had its own unique sting.

The world number one held a 3-0 lead in the third set and had all the running before former Wimbledon champion Rybakina broke back in the fifth game and stormed to her second Grand Slam trophy.

"She made some winners. I made a couple of unforced errors," Sabalenka told reporters.

"Of course, I have regrets. You know, when you lead 3-0 and then it felt like in a few seconds it was 3-4 and I was down with a break. So it was very fast.

"Great tennis from her. Maybe not so smart for me but, as I say, today I'm a loser, maybe tomorrow I'm a winner, maybe again a loser. Hopefully not. We'll see."

It was Sabalenka's second significant loss to Rybakina in a few months, having been beaten for the season-ending WTA Finals crown.

More alarmingly, it was her third loss in her last four major finals, with Coco Gauff flooring her at last year's French Open.

Sabalenka did not lose a set coming into the Melbourne final and had won 46 of her 48 previous matches at hardcourt Grand Slams.

Now Rybakina, one of the few players able to match her for power, has dealt Sabalenka's aura a heavy blow.

Sabalenka laughed ruefully and shrugged through her post-match press conference but was honest enough to admit she had been despondent outside the room.

On court, she draped a white towel over her head to conceal her anguish before gathering herself to deliver gracious congratulations to Rybakina, her most frequent opponent on tour.

She consoled herself that barring a few errors in the final set, Rybakina had simply wrested the trophy from her grip with the quality of her tennis.

"Even in this final I feel like I played great. I was fighting. I did my best, and today she was a better player," said Sabalenka.

"So I don't know. We'll speak with the team. Now they try to avoid and escape me because they see that it's not really healthy to be around me right now."

-Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Clare Fallon/Reuters