Elena Rybakina wins US Open: victory over Sabalenka crowns rise to world No. 1
Elena Rybakina won her first US Open title after defeating Aryna Sabalenka 6:4, 5:7, 6:2 in the women's singles final in New York. The Kazakh tennis player secured the victory on Saturday, September 12, at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center complex in Flushing Meadows, stopping the two-time defending champion in her attempt to win the season's final Grand Slam tournament for a third consecutive year. According to an Associated Press report, Rybakina's victory ended Sabalenka's streak of 19 consecutive US Open wins and gave her the third Grand Slam title of her career. It also confirmed a season in which she had already won the Australian Open, likewise by defeating Sabalenka in the final, meaning she finished 2026 with two of the four most important trophies in women's tennis. The triumph in New York came only a few days after Rybakina mathematically secured the No. 1 spot in the WTA rankings, which she will officially take over after the tournament ends.
A final decided by the third set
The clash between the tournament's two highest-ranked players lived up to expectations and produced three sets of tennis in which serve, the first shot after serve and the ability to seize the initiative were crucial. Rybakina won the first set 6:4, but Sabalenka responded in the second and levelled the match with a 7:5 victory, extending the battle for the title. In the deciding set, the Kazakh once again imposed a more aggressive rhythm and closed out the final 6:2, not allowing her opponent to take complete control after getting back into the match. The Associated Press states that Rybakina remained calmer and more precise during the closing stages, while Sabalenka showed increasing frustration under the pressure of the scoreline. That outcome was particularly significant because the Belarusian arrived in New York as the two-time defending champion and as a player who had set an exceptionally high standard on the hard courts of Grand Slam tournaments in recent years.
According to statistical data reported by the Wall Street Journal, Rybakina hit 36 winners in the final and made 11 fewer unforced errors than Sabalenka. Her game once again relied on a powerful serve and flat, deep groundstrokes, but the important difference was her ability to reduce the number of errors at the most important moments. Sabalenka managed to find an answer in the second set and showed why she had won the title in New York in each of the previous two years, but she was unable to maintain the same intensity in the third set. Rybakina then quickly built a lead and never gave it up. The final therefore ended as another major chapter in the rivalry between two players whose styles are based on power, but whose biggest matches are increasingly decided by small differences in their control of rhythm and emotions.
Third Grand Slam title and second in 2026
For the 27-year-old Rybakina, the title in New York is the third Grand Slam trophy of her career. She won her first at Wimbledon in 2022, her second at the Australian Open at the start of 2026, and has now added the US Open to her collection. Of the four biggest tournaments, only Roland Garros is now missing for her to complete the so-called career Grand Slam, meaning at least one title at each of the four major tournaments. According to the Associated Press, this year's victory in New York further underlined her rise because she won both of her Grand Slam titles in 2026 on hard courts and defeated Sabalenka in the final on both occasions. That further cemented their head-to-head rivalry as one of the central rivalries in current women's tennis.
Before the final, the US Open stated that Sabalenka led their head-to-head meetings 10:7, while on hard courts they were tied at 7:7. The New York final was therefore not only a battle for the trophy but also a continuation of a series of matches in which they regularly meet in the closing stages of the biggest tournaments. Their first Grand Slam final against each other went to Sabalenka at the 2023 Australian Open, while Rybakina struck back in Melbourne in 2026. Their third shared Grand Slam final has now gone to the Kazakh, reducing Sabalenka's overall head-to-head lead to 10:8 after New York. The sequence of results shows how little room for error there is when two players with some of the strongest serves and most aggressive first shots on the WTA Tour face each other.
No. 1 secured even before the battle for the trophy
Rybakina achieved another historic result in New York before she had even reached the final. By defeating Zheng Qinwen in the quarterfinals, 3:6, 6:1, 6:4, she ensured that she would become the world's top-ranked tennis player for the first time in her career after the US Open. The official US Open website reported that this ended Sabalenka's run of 99 consecutive weeks at the top of the WTA rankings. According to the same source, Rybakina will become the 30th player to reach No. 1 since the WTA introduced its computerized rankings. The official Roland-Garros website additionally highlighted that she will become the first tennis player from Kazakhstan, male or female, to reach No. 1 in the world rankings.
Importantly, she secured the top ranking regardless of the outcome of the final. Before the tournament, she needed to reach at least the semifinals to take over the top spot, which she achieved with a difficult victory over Zheng in the quarterfinals. After losing the first set, she turned the match around and, in the deciding set, also survived a moment when her opponent had an opportunity to move into a lead that would have brought her closer to victory. After that match, the WTA confirmed that Rybakina would become the 30th world No. 1 in the next edition of the rankings. Winning the US Open was therefore not a requirement for the change at the top, but it gave the new leading player the strongest possible confirmation of her form at precisely the moment she was taking over first place.
The path to the title ran through former champions and the home favourite
Rybakina's path through the tournament was particularly convincing because she defeated several players with extensive experience on the biggest stage in the closing rounds. In the round of 16, she beat Naomi Osaka 6:1, 6:4, reaching the US Open quarterfinals for the first time in her career. The official WTA website then highlighted that she had played one of her most convincing matches of the tournament against the four-time Grand Slam champion, with 29 winners and seven aces. She then had to come from behind against Zheng Qinwen, with the victory bringing her not only a place in the semifinals but also the guaranteed No. 1 position in the world rankings. Waiting in the semifinals was Coco Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion and one of the main home favourites.
Against Gauff, Rybakina again lost the first set, but won 3:6, 6:4, 6:4. According to the official US Open report, the Kazakh used her first serve particularly effectively in the third set and went a long time without losing a point after landing her first serve. Gauff managed to come back when Rybakina first served for the match, but the second seed immediately responded with a break and closed out the contest. It was her first appearance in a US Open final, surpassing her previous best result in New York, the fourth round in 2025. That progress was all the more important because, before this tournament, the US Open was the only Grand Slam at which she had never reached at least the quarterfinals.
From injury concerns to her best result in New York
The start of the tournament did not come at an ideal time. Before the first round, the WTA recalled that Rybakina had previously withdrawn from her quarterfinal in Cincinnati because of a left ankle injury, creating uncertainty about her physical condition ahead of the US Open. Despite that, she opened the tournament with a comfortable victory over 17-year-old Thea Frodin and gradually raised the level of her game through the opening rounds. She did not lose a set before the quarterfinals, and then, in three consecutive major matches against Zheng, Gauff and Sabalenka, showed that she could also win when she was not dominating from the first point. That aspect of her performance in New York is probably just as important as the power of the serve for which she has been known for years.
The official US Open final preview also emphasized just how difficult New York had previously been for Rybakina. In her first six appearances she had never advanced beyond the third round, and only in 2025 did she reach the round of 16. A year later she won the title, defeating two former US Open champions, Osaka and Gauff, as well as the current two-time defending champion Sabalenka. That leap from earlier disappointments to the trophy is one of the clearest indicators of the breadth of her game in 2026. Rybakina is no longer a player whose hard-court results depend solely on the quality of her serve on a given day; stability in rallies, return of serve and the ability to adapt during a match have become equally important elements of her game.
Sabalenka's New York streak stopped after two titles
For Sabalenka, the defeat meant the end of her attempt to win a third consecutive US Open title. The Belarusian won in New York in 2024 and 2025 and reached the final for a fourth straight year in 2026. Before the championship match, the US Open noted that she was the first player to reach four consecutive women's finals at the tournament since Serena Williams did so from 2011 to 2014. A victory would have placed her among the rare players in the Open era to win at least three consecutive titles in New York, but Rybakina stopped that attempt. The Associated Press states that the defeat also ended Sabalenka's streak of 19 consecutive US Open victories.
Despite the defeat, Sabalenka's consistency at the biggest tournaments remains exceptional. In New York she once again reached the final, defeating Jessica Pegula in the semifinals. However, she finishes 2026 without a Grand Slam title, even though she won major tournaments in Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami during the season and played in the Australian Open final. It was Rybakina who inflicted Sabalenka's two toughest defeats of the year in Melbourne and New York, both in Grand Slam finals. That also changed the broader balance of power at the top of the WTA Tour: Sabalenka is no longer simply the player leading the rankings, but now enters a period in which she will try to regain the top spot from a rival who defeated her twice in the season's biggest finals.
Record prize and historic US Open purse
The title in New York also earned Rybakina 5.5 million US dollars, the largest individual singles winner's prize in US Open history. Before the tournament, the USTA announced that total player compensation at the 2026 edition would amount to 108 million dollars, 20 percent more than the then-record 90 million dollars in 2025. Organizers also stated that the prize for the singles champions had been increased to 5.5 million dollars, while first-round compensation in the main draw had risen to 140,000 dollars. The tournament's financial growth thus matched the sporting significance of the final between the first and second seeds, the first such women's US Open final since 2013.
For Rybakina, however, the sporting impact is more important. The title in New York combined three major achievements: her first US Open trophy, the third Grand Slam title of her career and her rise to No. 1 in the WTA rankings. She opened the Grand Slam season by winning the Australian Open and closed it by winning the US Open, both times against the same opponent and both times after three sets. Between those results she did not have equally successful performances at the European Grand Slams, but the end of the year confirmed that she had set the benchmark on hard courts that the rest of the elite will have to follow. When the new WTA rankings are published, Rybakina will add the official status of the world's top-ranked tennis player to her New York title.
A rivalry increasingly defining the top of women's tennis
The 2026 US Open final further reinforced the impression that the biggest matches between Rybakina and Sabalenka are not simply about raw power. Both can hold serve very quickly, shorten rallies and seize control with the shot immediately after the serve, but their Grand Slam clashes are increasingly decided by which player adapts better when the initial plan stops working. Rybakina turned around the closing stages against Sabalenka in Melbourne at the beginning of the year, and in New York she again found her highest level in the deciding part of the match after losing the second set. Sabalenka, meanwhile, showed that she still possesses the game required to reach the closing stages of the biggest tournaments consistently, but this season she came away without a trophy from their two most important finals against each other.
In that context, the US Open did not merely produce a new champion but also a symbolic change at the top. During the same tournament, Rybakina first secured the takeover of the No. 1 ranking, then reached the Flushing Meadows final for the first time and finally defeated the player whose position she is taking. She did not need to win the final to become No. 1, but the manner in which she won the title removed any doubt about the significance of her achievement in New York. With three different Grand Slam trophies in her cabinet and two won in the same season, her next major goal naturally shifts toward clay and Roland Garros. For Sabalenka, meanwhile, the pursuit of a return to the top begins, in a rivalry that in 2026 produced two Grand Slam finals and a new leading player in world tennis.
Sources:
- Associated Press – report on the final, the result, the end of Sabalenka's winning streak, Rybakina's third Grand Slam title and the winner's prize (link)
- US Open / USTA – confirmation that Rybakina secured the No. 1 position in the WTA rankings and status as the 30th world No. 1 by defeating Zheng Qinwen (link)
- US Open / USTA – report on Rybakina's semifinal victory over Coco Gauff and details of their paths to the final (link)
- US Open / USTA – final preview with the head-to-head record, previous results in New York and the historical context of the clash between the top two seeds (link)
- WTA – details of Rybakina's path to No. 1, her injury before the tournament and results against Osaka, Zheng and Gauff (link)
- Roland-Garros – confirmation that Rybakina is the first representative of Kazakhstan, in either men's or women's competition, to reach No. 1 in the world tennis rankings (link)
- USTA – official data on the record 108 million dollar prize fund and the 5.5 million dollar prize for singles champions (link)
- Wall Street Journal – statistical data on Rybakina's 36 winners and the difference in unforced errors in the final (link)