Sabalenka, playing in her first Grand Slam final overcame the current Wimbledon women’s singles champion Rybakina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Melbourne Park.

Rybakina, who was born in Russia before switching her citizenship to Kazakhstan in June 2018, earned the first break of the match in the third game, with Sabalenka opening up a 40-0 lead before Rybakina came back to win the game with a big forehand.

Sabalenka broke back and looked to have the momentum but made two double faults allowing Rybakina to get back the advantage, before she closed out the opening set in 34 minutes.

Sabalenka trailed 15-40 in the first game of set two but bounced back with a body serve and a big forehand to rescue the game.

After breaking for 3-1 the match turned in Sabalenka’s favour, as she went on to close it out 6-3, striking back-to-back aces to seal a set in which she hit 21 winners.

In the decider Sabalenka looked the likelier to seal a break of serve, eventually doing so in the seventh game at the third attempt, as she capitalised on a Rybakina second serve.

Closing the contest out proved a challenge with Sabalenka requiring four match points before getting over the line, with an errant Rybakina forehand cueing the celebrations for the Belarusian.

Sabalenka now has a 4-0 lead over Rybakina in their head-to-head and afterwards she praised her team, led by coach Anton Dubrov.

"We've been through a lot of downs last year," she said speaking on court after the match.

"We worked so hard. You guys deserve this trophy.

"It's more about you than it is about me.

"Thank you so much for everything you are doing for me. I love you guys."

Elsewhere on the penultimate day of the tournament the men’s doubles crown was decided, with a victory for Australian wildcards Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler.

Hijikata and Kubler won 6-4, 7-6 against Polish duo Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski.