Elena Rybakina Advances to US Open Final After Thrilling Match Against Coco Gauff

Elena Rybakina walked into a hostile Arthur Ashe Stadium, absorbed everything Coco Gauff and 20,000 New Yorkers could throw at her, and walked out with a place in the US Open final and a shot at a third major title.

It took three sets of bruising, high‑risk tennis: 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. It also took nerve.

Gauff starts on the front foot

For a set, this was Gauff’s night. The American fed off a deafening crowd that included former first lady Michelle Obama, traded from the baseline with conviction and forced Rybakina into errors that don’t usually come in clusters.

Gauff broke in the sixth game, her defence turning Rybakina’s pace back on her. The fourth seed’s forehand held up, the backhand stayed solid, and the Kazakh’s frustration grew as another return sailed long. Gauff served out the opener, and Ashe shook.

Rybakina looked rattled. Briefly.

Rybakina turns the tide

The match flipped not with a single shot, but with Gauff’s looseness. A couple of sloppy games from the American in the second set cracked the door open, and Rybakina barged through it.

Her serve, misfiring early, began to land with its usual thud. The rallies shortened. The backhand started to knife through the court. Gauff, who had been dictating patterns, suddenly found herself reacting, stretched out wide, pulled into uncomfortable positions.

Rybakina broke, clamped down on her own service games, and quieted Arthur Ashe Stadium. The second set belonged to her, and the mood changed with it.

Now it was Gauff chasing.

Power decides the decider

The deciding set became a test of who could hold their nerve under fire. Rybakina’s power was now fully in gear. She stepped inside the baseline, attacked second serves, and forced Gauff into defensive mode.

At 3-3, the pressure told. Rybakina broke to go 5-3 ahead, hammering away until Gauff’s resistance finally cracked. The finish line was in sight.

Gauff, as she so often does, refused to go quietly. She broke straight back, igniting the crowd again and hinting at another trademark comeback. But the surge didn’t last.

Serving to stay in the match at 4-5, Gauff couldn’t withstand one last barrage. Rybakina pounced, broke again, and sealed the win with the same blunt force that has carried her to major titles before.

The roar this time came from her box.

On Sunday (AEST), she will walk back into Ashe for a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final against Aryna Sabalenka, a contest she won in three sets. The stakes are higher now: New York, a third slam, and the chance to dethrone the defending champion on her own hard-court throne.

Sabalenka storms into another New York final

Waiting for Rybakina is a top seed who looks intent on building a dynasty in Queens.

Aryna Sabalenka dismissed Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 earlier in the day, moving within one victory of a rare third consecutive US Open title. The scoreline doesn’t show the early turbulence, but her racquet did.

Pegula, the third seed and last year’s runner-up, came out sharp. She saved an early break point with a crisp forehand winner and matched Sabalenka from the back of the court. The Belarusian simmered. A double fault in the ninth game drew a furious crack of racquet on the hard court. When Pegula held for 5-5 and Sabalenka flung her racquet to the ground, it felt like the match might be slipping.

Then the switch flipped.

Sabalenka found her range, started to bully Pegula from the baseline and broke on set point with a heavy, penetrating return. From there, she didn’t look back.

Her game in the second set was ruthless. Twenty-nine winners, seven aces, and a stream of first strikes that left Pegula stranded behind the baseline. The final point summed it up: an unreturnable shot driven deep into American territory, ending Pegula’s latest push for a first major.

Pegula could only acknowledge the onslaught. “She played insane. She played a super-high level,” she said, admitting she wasn’t sure there was much she could have done differently.

Sabalenka, who had lost their previous meeting in the Berlin semifinals in June, knew this one was different. “I was so desperate for the win, I wanted it badly,” she said, adding that against Pegula “today, compared to the last matches we played, it was definitely the better level from me.”

The numbers backed her up. The body language did too.

Now New York gets a heavyweight final it deserves: Sabalenka, hunting a third straight crown, against Rybakina, already a major champion on these courts in January and again imposing her will on the biggest stages.

Their Australian Open final went three sets. With both swinging freely and history on the line, who blinks first this time?