20 things Elena Rybakina achieved with her run to the Australian Open title

Elena Rybakina could do no wrong at the Australian Open this year, storming into the final without dropping a set—including a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals and a 6-3, 7-6 (7) triumph over Jessica Pegula in the semifinals—and then battling past Aryna Sabalenka in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, for the title.

Here are 20 things she achieved in Melbourne this year:

She won her second Grand Slam title, her first coming at Wimbledon in 2022. She’s one of just four active women’s players to win multiple majors since the start of 2022, along with Sabalenka, Swiatek and Coco Gauff.

She’s one of only three active women’s players to win a Grand Slam title on grass and hard courts. She joins Venus Williams (five Wimbledons and two US Opens) and Swiatek (one Wimbledon and one US Open).

She’s the only active women’s player to win Wimbledon and the Australian Open. Venus is the only other active women’s player who’s even reached the final of both (she’s been a runner-up twice in Melbourne).

She’s the first player to win the WTA Finals and Australian Open back-to-back in eight years. Caroline Wozniacki was the last player to do that, winning the 2017 WTA Finals and then the 2018 Australian Open.

It was the 12th overall title of her career. Along with her two Grand Slam titles and her WTA Finals title, Rybakina also has two WTA 1000s, five WTA 500s and two WTA 250s.

She’s now won her last five finals in a row on the tour, a streak that began at Stuttgart in 2024, and brought her three more titles in 2025 (Strasbourg, Ningbo and the WTA Finals) and now one more in 2026 (the Australian Open). She now has an overall career record of 12-11 in finals.

She improved her head-to-head records against Swiatek and Sabalenka to 6-6 and 7-8, respectively. She’s now tied for most career wins over Swiatek (Ostapenko is 6-0 against her) and her 7-8 record against Sabalenka could easily be 8-7 (she had quadruple match point against her in Berlin last year).

More impressively, she’s now a combined 9-4 against Swiatek and Sabalenka while they’re ranked No. 1. Broken down that’s 4-1 against Swiatek while she’s No. 1 and 5-3 against Sabalenka while she’s No. 1.

She’s the only player to have wins over both Swiatek and Sabalenka at Grand Slams while they’re No. 1. She beat then-No. 1 Swiatek at the Australian Open in 2023 and now-No. 1 Sabalenka in Melbourne this year.

She’s also the only player to beat Sabalenka twice in Australia since the start of 2023. Sabalenka is 44-3 in the last four Australian swings combined, her only losses coming at the hands of Rybakina in the 2024 Brisbane final, Madison Keys in the 2025 Australian Open final and now Rybakina again in the 2026 Australian Open final.

She’s now 9-6 in her career against No. 1s. That includes 0-2 against Ashleigh Barty and the previously mentioned 4-1 and 5-3 records against Swiatek and Sabalenka.

And at 60%, Rybakina now has the best career winning percentage against No. 1s in WTA rankings history (min. 10 matches played). Only two other women are above even—Serena Williams at 58.6% and Steffi Graf at 57.9%.

She’s the second woman in the last 17 years to beat both No. 1 and No. 2 at a major, after Keys achieved the rare feat at last year’s Australian Open, beating Swiatek in the semis and Sabalenka in the final. Before that you have to go all the way back to Svetlana Kuznetsova at 2009 Roland Garros for the last time that happened.

She’s the fourth woman ever to beat both No. 1 and No. 2 at the Australian Open. The first three were Jennifer Capriati in 2001, Serena in 2005 and Keys in 2025.

She’s also the fourth woman ever to beat both No. 1 and No. 2 at the same tour-level event three or more times, having previously done it at Indian Wells in 2023 and the WTA Finals in 2025. She joins a very exclusive list:

• Serena Williams (8 times: 1999 US Open, 2000 Los Angeles, 2002 Miami, 2002 Roland Garros, 2005 Australian Open, 2007 Miami, 2012 Madrid, 2012 WTA Finals)
• Venus Williams (4 times: 2000 Wimbledon, 2000 US Open, 2005 Wimbledon, 2008 WTA Finals)
• Tracy Austin (3 times: 1979 US Open, 1979 Filderstadt, 1981 New Jersey)
• Elena Rybakina (3 times: 2023 Indian Wells, 2025 WTA Finals, 2026 Australian Open)

She’s now on a 10-match winning streak against Top 10 players, going 7-0 to finish 2025 and now 3-0 so far in 2026. She’s the second woman this decade to win 10 or more in a row against Top 10 players, after Swiatek.

She’s now won 20 of her last 21 matches, period. It’s a stretch that dates back to last October, and her only loss since then was a close one, to Karolina Muchova in the Brisbane quarterfinals this year, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

She’s now 38-7 since the end of Wimbledon last year. It’s the most wins on the women’s tour in that span.

She’s now the WTA’s ace leader for 2026 so far, too. She hit 47 aces at the Australian Open, the most for any woman in the tournament, and she now has 69 total for the year. China’s Wang Xinyu is next with 60.

Her title run bumped her ranking from No. 5 back to her career-high of No. 3. She first got to No. 3 in 2023, but this is her first time back at that spot in exactly two years, since the two weeks of the 2024 Australian Open.

And finally, she’s closing in on No. 2. She’s just 368 points behind current No. 2 Swiatek, 7,978 to 7,610, so the upcoming back-to-back-to-back-to-back WTA 1000s in Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami could be crucial…