Elena Rybakina showed her class after beating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 4-6 6-4 to be crowned the Australian Open champion. It's her second Grand Slam title, and her first in three-and-a-half years. The fifth seed has now won 20 of her last 21 matches dating back to October. In that time, she's also picked up titles in Ningbo and the WTA Finals, also beating Sabalenka in the final in Riyadh.

Rybakina banished her demons as she battled back to beat Sabalenka in three sets, avoiding a repeat of the 2023 final. There, the Kazakh led by a set before losing in three. And she looked on course for a repeat before digging deep to win six of the last seven games.

It's a second successive Australian Open final defeat for Sabalenka, who also lost to Madison Keys in three sets last year. Rybakina, meanwhile, has now won her last 10 matches against fellow top-10 players.

But the 26-year-old made sure to pay tribute to Sabalenka and all of her success in Melbourne Park as she stepped up to the microphone as the new champion. "It's hard to find the words but I want to congratulate Aryna. She's had amazing results for a couple of years and I hope we're going to play many more finals together," Rybakina said.

"I know it's tough, but I just hope that we are going play many more finals together. Of course, congrats to your team for all the great improvements that you've done."

The newly-crowned Australian Open champion also thanked the fans, tournament organisers, her sponsors, and the Kazakh Tennis Federation. Turning her attention to her coaching camp, she added: "And of course I would like to say thank you to my team, without you it wouldn't be possible, really.

"We had a lot of things going on and I'm really glad we achieved this result. Thank you to all of you, hopefully we can keep on going strong this year."

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Rybakina, who won her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2022, started strong on Saturday night, ripping winners across the court to break immediately as Sabalenka looked flustered. Coming into the final, the 26-year-old hit 41 aces across her first six matches - more than any other woman here. And her big serve got her out of trouble when she needed it the most. She saved two break points in the middle of set one and went on to take it 6-4.

But Sabalenka raised her intensity at exactly the right time and won the last eight points of the second set to force a decider as Rybakina became tentative and backed off, hitting two unforced errors while serving to stay in the second.

It looked like it was going to full steam ahead for the world No. 1, who hit four winners in a single game to break at the beginning of the decider, and another winner helped her save a break-back point as she extended her lead. But Rybakina came charging back, and Sabalenka became frustrated, making more and more mistakes as the 26-year-old stepped it up.

Serving for her second Grand Slam title, Rybakina blocked out the noise. At 30-30, she hit a service winner while someone was cheering for her opponent. And she sealed victory with an ace - her sixth of the match and 47th of the tournament.