Aus Open Day 12 - Rybakina vs. Sabalenka showdown set

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Sports & Recreation, Wimbledon, Sports, Tennis

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2026

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Catherine, David and Matt are in Garden Square to talk about Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina reaching the women’s final.

Part one - Women’s semi-finals. Some actual drama as Jessica Pegula tried to mount a dramatic comeback in the second set against Rybakina, a dominant display from Sabalenka versus Elina Svitolina which was propelled by a controversial hindrance call, and some early thoughts on what might happen in Saturday’s final.

Part two (33:50) - Sensation of the day, doubles and wheelchair results, and Matt’s experience playing in the media one point slam.

Part three (50:34) - Previewing Carlos Alcaraz vs Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner vs Novak Djokovic. Can we make a case for any upsets?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast on women's semi-finals night at the Australian Open,
0:17.1	a night that is seen Elena Rabakina and Arena Sabalenko set up a meeting in Saturday's final.
0:24.8	It is moments before midnight and you find us in Garden Square.
0:29.9	It's a gorgeous evening and we're in the aftermath of the session that is tended to most reliably deliver drama at a grand slam over the years, the back-to-back
0:40.7	women's semi-finals. But of course, this is the Dodd slam. So what we got was two straight
0:47.2	setters, but that doesn't tell the whole story because a match accidentally broke out on the Rodlava arena earlier on tonight.
0:57.5	Unfortunately not for long enough to give us a deciding set, but we are feeding off crumbs at this
1:02.8	point in the tournament and Jessica Baguola, David, definitely gave us a little snack with her
1:09.6	second set comeback against Elena Rabakina.
1:12.6	Yeah, but it really whetted the appetite for more, didn't it? And I was really enjoying her comeback.
1:18.6	I loved the way she played against Ramando Anissimovi yesterday. I think that's one of the best performances I've seen from her yesterday.
1:26.6	I think we had others when she's mounted comebacks against Sabalenko, say, at the US Open,
1:32.3	things like that, where she just steps up to a, probably a more talked about opponent,
1:38.3	who we assume has a bigger game, and that was the case today, and then retaliates,
1:42.3	and I love watching her retaliate against players and use a movement and use those snapping groundstrokes that sort of take the opponent by surprise.
1:51.6	But it took such a long time for that to happen today against Rebecca.
1:57.4	She didn't leave it quite too late because she managed to make a fight to that second set. She had
2:02.5	two set points, but she didn't
2:04.6	take them. And you've got
2:06.7	to give enormous credit for Rabakana
2:08.4	for kind of, I guess, choking
2:10.6	or at least losing her forehand,
	...

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