After claiming the world No. 1 ranking, Elena Rybakina completed an extraordinary week by dethroning reigning US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka. The Kazakh defeated the two-time winner 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in New York to secure her third Grand Slam title.
The victory gives even greater significance to Rybakina’s rise to the top of the rankings, which she sealed with a quarter-final victory that felt strangely understated. Aware of the scale of the achievement but unwilling to celebrate while the tournament continued, she can now savour a triumph that leaves her one major title short of completing the career Grand Slam. After previous wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, she has also become only the third woman this century to win both hard-court Grand Slam events in the same season.
Sabalenka had been chasing her own piece of history. Victory would have made her only the third woman in the Open era to win the US Open three times in a row and established her as New York’s undisputed queen. Instead, she struggled to summon the relentless intensity that had carried her through the tournament and ended the night in tears, promising to “do better” next year.
Sabalenka had repeatedly spoken about the need to stay focused, block out questions about her form and ranking, and direct all of her energy towards her tennis. Yet from the opening stages, she looked overwhelmed by frustration, visibly irritated by the shortcomings in her performance.
The opening games brought routine holds, but Sabalenka appeared unsettled while Rybakina projected complete composure from the opposite side of the court. Rybakina’s tennis often appears effortless, and that contrast became even more striking as Sabalenka’s game began to unravel.
Sabalenka’s 15 unforced errors compared with just five from Rybakina, and each mistake seemed to trigger another visible reaction: raised hands, a tilted head or frantic gestures towards her player box. Rather than easing the pressure, those outbursts appeared to tighten it. A double fault handed Rybakina the first-set break, and Sabalenka was later warned for striking a ball away. Her aggression was no more effective during rallies, where she repeatedly searched for winners that were not there.
Elena Rybakina became the new Queen of New York after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in a thrilling three-set US Open final
Aryna Sabalenka smashed her racquet into the court as the final set slipped away
Rybakina’s serve had been one of the tournament’s defining weapons, although she was well below her most dangerous level in the opening set, landing only 27 per cent of her first serves. When those deliveries found their mark, Sabalenka struggled to respond. Even when Rybakina had to rely on her second serve, its precision continued to create problems.
Rybakina, meanwhile, had read Sabalenka’s serve superbly. She extended the Belarusian’s service games and repeatedly forced her onto the defensive under pressure. The 27-year-old created four break points before converting the fifth to move 3-2 ahead.
Sabalenka returned for the second set looking calmer and more precise, with fewer errors and fewer frustrated exchanges with her team. Rybakina’s level did not dip, however, as she continued to impose her game. She pushed Sabalenka to 5-4 before producing a huge hold in the 10th game, denying her opponent a first break point.
Rybakina could not maintain that advantage for much longer. Their previous encounters have often developed into three-set battles, and Sabalenka’s improved accuracy, together with her renewed composure, began to turn the second set in her favour.
This was the fuel Rybakina needed to act more decisively in the third, and immediately, she was all over Sabalenka’s serve, looking for cracks in her game. The pair met at deuce three times before the 28-year-old could see out her opening hold, while Rybakina skipped through hers, hungry for the next attempt to break her opponent.
She would not have to wait long, with Sabalenka again the picture of fury as she crashed her racquet into the floor, sent spinning by a string of Rybakina’s forehand winners. Instead of a second code violation warning, the punishment instead was the break Rybakina snatched.
In the seventh game, 2-4 down, Rybakina reached break point again, with the gift of a double fault from across the net. Sabalenka bent down to her knees, tipped her head to her racquet, as if praying for composure. Instead, more faults, more errors, broken again. Sabalenka’s last effort was to give the court another thrashing with her racquet. She all but walked off as Rybakina sent down her championship-winning ace.
But the new champion will not have needed grace from her opponent. She has her trophy instead.
