Sabalenka & Rybakina’s winding paths converge

Saturday's showdown between World No.5 Aryna Sabalenka and reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina will be a primetime showcase of power tennis. From each player's coaching box, the view is the same, which means the margin of victory will come down to who can hold their nerve and their serve.

"Elena is a good rhythm player, so she can feed off the pace of Aryna also," said Stefano Vukov, Rybakina's coach of four years. "I think on the backhand side we are a little bit stronger.  I think who serves well tomorrow goes through. That's my feeling."

A year ago, Sabalenka's serve was in pieces and she was having to scrape through fraught battles in Australia as her fragile emotions were laid painfully bare.

Now she stands on the brink of a major breakthrough after finally reaching a Grand Slam final at the fourth attempt.

Sabalenka has won all 10 matches she has contested this season and has not dropped a set, her power game overwhelming opponents and her glass-like fragility firmly in the past.

The shaky serve that haunted her so badly 12 months ago has been rock-solid, broken just six times in Melbourne.

The volte-face has been reward for a year of hard work with her coaches, a sports psychologist and a biomechanical specialist.

However, Sabalenka feels so in control now that she has dispensed with her sports psychologist.

"To be honest, I decided to stop working with a psychologist.  I realised that nobody other than me will help, you know. I'm my own psychologist," she laughed.

Sabalenka said she would not change anything for the final, even if the nerves return.

"I'm not going to do something extra. I think that's OK to feel a little bit nervous," she said.

Sabalenka goes into the match with a 3-0 career record against Rybakina. On paper that would give Sabalenka the edge, but Rybakina's coaching staff, led by Anton Dubrov and physical trainer Jason Stacy, is intent on throwing history out of the window.

"We could say that it was really hard all the time, all the time three sets," Dubrov said. "I think it was just like one break per set almost all the time.

"Right now I would say it's a new match. They played last time at Wimbledon two years ago. I would say it's just like another life. What's happened afterward? Aryna lost her serve. Then she found the serve. Meanwhile, Rybakina won a Slam. They both came here from different directions."