World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka defended her Brisbane International title with a straight-sets victory against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk on Sunday in Australia.
The top-seeded Belarusian defeated the No. 16 seed 6-4, 6-3 in 78 minutes to claim her 22nd career WTA Tour title, third among active players behind Venus Williams (49) and Iga Swiatek (25).
Sabalenka did not lose a set all week as the four-time Grand Slam winner heads to the Australian Open, where she lifted the trophy in 2023 and 2024. She converted three of eight break points against Kostyuk, who won points on only 56% (19 of 34) of her first serves.
ASB Classic
No. 1 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine collected her 19th career title with a 6-3, 7-6 (6) win against No. 7 Xinyu Wang of China in Auckland, New Zealand.
Svitolina improved to 19-4 in WTA Tour finals with the victory in one hour and 42 minutes, saving all four break points she faced and building momentum for the Australian Open. She is a three-time quarterfinalist in Melbourne and has never won a Grand Slam title.
Svitolina secured the only service break of the match to take a 4-2 lead in the opening set. Wang won the first three points in the second-set tiebreak but couldn’t force a deciding set.
–Field Level Media
