Sabalenka Defeats Kostyuk, Repeats as Brisbane Champion

Back-to-back, that’s a fact.

Aryna Sabalenka stormed past Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-3 in Sunday’s Brisbane final, winning her second consecutive title at the WTA 500 event, and third in four years.

And so it is another fast start to a season for the woman who has now held the world No.1 ranking for 62 consecutive weeks.

Sabalenka hit 17 winners to 15 for Kostyuk in a close contest – she broke serve three times and only surrendered one break to improve to 5-0 against the Ukranian that was bidding for what would have been her fourth consecutive Top 10 victory.

It was not to be as Sabalenka claimed her 19th hard court title and improved to 18-1 lifetime in Brisbane.

Focus Shifts to Melbourne

Now she can turn her sights on the Australian Open, where she hopes to regain the crown that she relinquished to Madison Keys in last year’s barnburner final.

“It’s tennis, it’s sport, and that’s why it’s so beautiful because you cannot predict anything,” Sabalenka said. “It’s like every day you go out there and you prove your level, you prove your point.

“I think this week I did it really well, but nobody knows what’s gonna happen in the future, but the only one thing I’m sure is that I will be there, I’ll be fighting, I’ll do my best to go as far as possible and do a little bit better than I did last year. That’s where is my focus. My focus is on my game and developing myself and making sure that I’m strong and healthy heading to the AO.”

Asked if she felt that this was the best she ever felt ahead of an Australian Open, Sabalenka said:

“For sure there are so many things I can improve at, and that’s the beauty of sport,” she said. “There is always that little percent for little room for improvement.

“I definitely feel really great about my game, about my tennis, but I also know that there are a lot of things to improve and to work on. That’s what we’re gonna focus on next week.”