It's finals time at the Australian Open, with the first women's singles grand slam title of the season set to be decided at Melbourne Park.
The field of 128 players has been whittled down to just two — 22nd seed, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka.
The pair will be competing for the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup and the chance to succeed Australia's Ash Barty as women's singles champion.
Here's all you need to know about the decider at Melbourne Park.
When is the final?
The match will be played on Rod Laver Arena tonight, starting at 7:30pm AEDT (Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Hobart) — that's 7:00pm in Adelaide (ACDT), 6:30pm in Brisbane (AEST), 6pm in Darwin (ACST) and 4:30pm in Perth (AWST).
How do I watch the final?
The Nine Network is Australia's free-to-air broadcaster for the Australian Open.
The match will be broadcast on Channel Nine and 9HD (channel 90), or in certain parts of Australia part of the match may be on GEM (channel 92).
You can also stream the match on 9NOW, or on pay TV on Stan Sport.
What's on the line?
Aside from getting your name on the trophy, there is the small matter of $1.35 million — the difference in prize money between winning the title ($2.975 million) and being the runner-up ($1.625 million).
Regardless of the result, Sabalenka is expected to be at number two in the world rankings from Monday. if Rybakina wins, she will move to eighth in the world; if not, she will be 10th.
How did they get here?
For Sabalenka, it is a case of fourth time lucky in reaching the tournament decider at a major, having fallen at the semifinal stage three times previously.
She has not dropped a set during her Melbourne Park campaign, although she has only met two seeds during the preliminary rounds.
Rybakina has been impressive in her run to the final, with three wins over players who have won majors, including a straight-sets defeat of world number one Iga Świątek in the round of 16.
The Kazakh saw off the challenge of two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in the last four to book her spot in a major final for the second time in her career.
Have they played each other before?
This will be the fourth career head-to-head meeting between Sabalenka and Rybakina.
Sabalenka has won all of their previous matches, with each going the distance to three sets.
While yet to post a win against Sabalenka, Rybakina has grown in confidence and experience significantly since their last clash at Wimbledon in 2021.
Who wins?
As reigning Wimbledon champion, Rybakina knows what it takes to win on the biggest stage.
She can turn to her powerful serve to get herself out of trouble, as shown by the fact she leads the tournament for the highest number of aces, with 45.
That does not mean she is immune to the serving yips, however, as she was broken when she served for both the first set and later the match in her win over Azarenka.
Sabalenka's serving woes during her career are well documented, and she sits third on the double-fault standings at this year's Open.
Like Rybakina, though, the power of her groundstrokes is such that she can dominate opponents, as illustrated in her semifinal defeat of Magda Linette, where she hit 17 forehand winners against the Pole.
