Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina beat a misfiring Aryna Sabalenka 7-6(11) 6-4 on Sunday to claim the Indian Wells title and avenge her loss to the Belarusian in the Australian Open final.
Rybakina, playing in her first WTA 1000 final, saved three set points in the opening frame and was never really tested in the second where she cruised to a victory that will send her to a career-high seventh in the rankings.
"It's actually the first time it went my way so we'll see, hopefully we are going to play many more finals," Rybakina said during the trophy presentation before Sabalenka stepped in and joked: "I'll make sure it was the last one." But the Kazakh 10th seed did not back down and immediately held at love to steady the ship before Sabalenka handed back the break with an untimely double fault that leveled the match at 4-4 from where the duo remained on serve to force a tiebreaker.
Sabalenka's 10th double fault gave Rybakina her sixth set point of the opening frame at 12-11 in the tiebreak from where she closed it out when the Belarusian sent a forehand long.
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