Rybakina wins US Open, becomes world No. 1 with victory over Sabalenka

Elena Rybakina walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium already assured of one thing: by the end of Saturday's final, she would be the world's number one tennis player. What remained uncertain was whether she would claim the US Open title to go with that ranking. She did, dismantling two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 5-7 6-2 to win her first title at Flushing Meadows and her third Grand Slam victory of an extraordinary 2026 season.

The path to this moment had seemed improbable weeks earlier. Rybakina injured her ankle during the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals and could not walk for several days afterward. Her participation in New York was genuinely in doubt. Yet she not only competed but moved through her opening four matches with remarkable efficiency, her serve so dominant that opponents rarely found themselves in extended rallies. When the competition stiffened—losses of opening sets to Zheng Qinwen and Coco Gauff—Rybakina demonstrated she possessed more than raw power. She had the resilience to absorb pressure and fight back.

Against Sabalenka, Rybakina displayed the full range of her game. The Kazakhstani player's first-strike tennis, built on a penetrating serve and thunderous groundstrokes, has long been capable of taking the racquet from anyone's hands. But what separated her in this final was composure. In the opening set, despite her first serve misfiring, Rybakina's return game was so sharp and so deep that it left Sabalenka frustrated and searching for answers. A double fault on a break point in the twelfth game handed Rybakina the set.

Sabalenka fought back in the second set as her own groundstrokes found their rhythm and Rybakina's level dipped slightly. The Belarusian forced a decider by converting her third set point, but the momentum proved temporary. In the third set, Rybakina's returning game pinned Sabalenka to the baseline once more. A break for a 2-1 lead allowed the incoming world number one to grow in stature and control the match's trajectory. When Rybakina double-faulted on her first championship point, she reset and responded with an ace—a moment that seemed to underline her status as the sport's best player.

Rybakina's victory was remarkable partly because few had predicted it. She had never advanced beyond the last 16 at the US Open in her previous ten visits to New York. Her personality, she suggested, had not suited the brash energy of the city. "I was coming here for the last 10 years and it was never successful," she said. "I'm falling in love with New York more and more." At 27, she now stands one Grand Slam title away from completing a career Grand Slam, having won Wimbledon in 2022 and the Australian Open earlier this year.

For Sabalenka, the loss carried particular weight. She had hoped that winning a third consecutive US Open title might soften the sting of surrendering the world number one ranking to Rybakina. Instead, she confronted another major final defeat. The stress of the situation was visible from the early stages—evident in aggressive second serves, in the yelling and arm-flinging, in the moments spent hiding beneath her towel. These displays of emotion, which have long been part of her on-court identity, could not produce the gutsy victory she needed. The loss marked her fifth defeat from nine Grand Slam finals, a record that has prompted ongoing questions about whether she has underachieved at the sport's biggest tournaments despite her dominance across the broader WTA Tour. "I wish I could have performed a little bit better," she told the 24,000 spectators on Arthur Ashe Stadium, her voice thick with emotion. "But I guess next year."

Rybakina, by contrast, allowed herself only a brief smile as she clinched the title. "Some magic is happening," she told Sky Sports afterward. "I was unlucky with injury and just going day by day. We didn't know how it was going to be so I'm super happy and still can't believe it." The contrast between the two players—Rybakina's ice-cool precision against Sabalenka's combustible intensity—had defined not just this final but their entire rivalry. On this afternoon, in this moment, composure proved decisive.