The morning after Aryna Sabalenka gained her second consecutive Australian Open, her resort room is chaos. You possibly can forgive her for not tidying up; after just a few hours of sleep and an extended night time of celebrating over bitter gummy bears and champagne, Sabalenka’s room has been retconned into the set for her digital cowl shoot with Vogue Australia, for which she is being styled in a roster of Australian designers (Christopher Esber, Camilla & Marc, Dion Lee) and her trusty, trophy-winning cherry purple Nike sneakers. “I truly love doing photoshoots,” Sabalenka grins, as she is zipped right into a second-skin Zimmermann skirt. “Proper now, with the professionals I really feel like I’m doing a horrible job,” she jokes. “I feel I must do some courses and study some stuff about the right way to pose.”

Inside her resort room, there are garments on each floor; Nike baggage are strewn throughout the ground. Lining the window overlooking downtown Melbourne are bouquets of flowers (a number of)—from her boyfriend, the hockey participant Konstantin Koltsov; from the resort—a bottle of Piper Heidsick champagne, and a pristine, untouched chocolate gateau within the form of a tennis courtroom, declaring her the 2024 Australian Open champion. The entire room smells like sugar.

On a facet desk is an attractive hand-drawn card, given to the 25-year-old a number of Grand Slam champion simply that morning by a younger lady. “Congratulations winner” the cardboard exclaims, the Australian Open trophy rendered in fluorescent yellow highlighter. “She was asking some questions on what recommendation I may give to her and who was my inspiration rising up,” Sabalenka shares. “She watched my match yesterday and she or he cherished it. She was so candy to me.”

Sabalenka is driving an unbelievable excessive. On Saturday night time, she defended her Australian Open title in simply 76 minutes, a quick and livid match that was over in straight, exacting units. Sabalenka got here into the ultimate towards Zheng Qinwen behind, ranked quantity two to Qinwen’s one. However Sabalenka’s recreation was methodical and dynamic, powering the Belarusian to a 6-3, 6-2 victory in simply over an hour of enjoying time. Australia is undoubtedly Sabalenka’s fortunate attraction; she gained in her very first Grand Slam singles closing right here simply final 12 months, in a match that went right down to the wire. Over the previous 12 months, she has reached the semifinals at each Grand Slam and performed a few of her finest tennis, however her victory lap in Melbourne has been astonishing. This century, solely Ash Barty has dropped fewer video games on the street to Australian Open glory. Put it this fashion: Sabalenka hasn’t misplaced a match at Rod Laver area since 2021.