Davenport “in awe” of current crop ahead of Sabalenka-Rybakina AO blockbuster

“I love the way she plays. I love the way she’s working on things; her forehand’s gotten so much better in the last few months,” Davenport said of Rybakina, who has struck a tournament-high 41 aces among women at AO 2026.

“I love that Rybakina has a server’s mentality; that was something that is really, I think, forgotten in women’s tennis. 

“And a lot of women’s players don’t grow up thinking like, ‘hey, I need to take some pride in holding my serve’. In men’s tennis, breaks don’t come that often, so they are really always working on their serve and that first shot after the serve, and patterns they want to play. I find a lot of girl junior players, when they come up, it’s just like: ‘oh I’m gonna get the serve in’. 

“So Rybakina, I love the way that she approaches that. I think Sabalenka is quite similar, also. Like, ‘hey, I’m gonna step to the line, I control this shot, I want to win the point on my terms’.”