Elena Rybakina Claims No. 1 Ranking and US Open Title

Aryna Sabalenka stopped hitting for a moment.

On a practice court at Flushing Meadows, already through to the semi-finals, she glanced towards Arthur Ashe Stadium, catching the pictures beamed from inside. For a second, her face tightened. Then she turned away and went back to work.

The threat had been building for months. By the time Elena Rybakina walked into New York, Sabalenka’s grip on the No. 1 ranking was hanging by a thread.

The slow takeover

This wasn’t a bolt from the blue. Rybakina’s rise had gathered force since the end of last season, when she closed 2025 by beating Sabalenka in the WTA Finals Riyadh championship match. Weeks later, she came from 3-0 down in the deciding set in Melbourne to stun Sabalenka again and take the Australian Open.

Those wins did more than put trophies in her cabinet. They shifted the balance at the top of the women’s game.

Heading to the US Open, the 27-year-old had already reached the Montreal final, hauling herself firmly back into the race for No. 1. Then her body threatened to betray her. A left ankle and heel tendon problem in Cincinnati raised real doubts over whether she would even make it to New York. She pulled out of her quarter-final in Ohio, calling it a “chronic foot injury”.

Her US Open status stayed unresolved until the last possible moment. Then she showed up — and never looked back.

Rybakina didn’t drop a set in the first week. Her demolition of Naomi Osaka in the round of 16 sent a clear message. Seven aces. Eighty-seven percent of points won behind her first serve. It was brutal, efficient tennis.

Sabalenka saw all of it.

Asked about the ranking picture as Rybakina surged, the Belarusian tried to push the narrative away.

“I completely separate myself from that, because it’s just guessing. It’s like if, if, if, if. I’m just trying to bring my best tennis every time I’m competing out there and basically fight for it,” she said after reaching the quarter-finals.

When the moment finally came and Rybakina officially climbed to No. 1, Sabalenka’s response was sharp, almost dismissive.

“I don’t care!”

She stressed she would rather leave New York with the US Open trophy than the ranking.

A new No. 1, a familiar victim

Rybakina kept marching. Former US Open champion Coco Gauff, roared on by a home crowd, could not derail her. Gauff grabbed the opening set in their semi-final, but the reigning Australian Open winner wrestled back control to win in three.

That set up the showdown everyone had circled. Rybakina, the new world No. 1. Sabalenka, the queen of Arthur Ashe.

The numbers were on Sabalenka’s side. She had not lost on that court in two years. A win would make her only the third woman ever to claim three straight US Open titles.

But the night belonged to Rybakina.

Her 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory in 2 hours and 21 minutes was not a rout. Sabalenka dragged her into a deciding set, as she almost always does in the biggest fights. Yet the key moments, the hinge points of the match, kept tilting towards the Kazakh.

In the opening set, Rybakina broke for 3-2 despite landing just 27% of her first serves. The serve misfired; the rest of her game did not. She bludgeoned the ball off both wings, using her groundstrokes to cover for the unreliable delivery and still protect that early break.

The serve returned in the second set. Her first-serve percentage jumped to 61%, but this time the scoreboard didn’t immediately follow. She failed to convert either of her two break points and then had to dig deep just to stay alive, saving two set points to hold for 5-5. Sabalenka, sensing an opening, punched through two games later to snatch the set and level the final.

Momentum seemed to swing. Sabalenka, battle-hardened on this court, had dragged the contest into her territory.

Rybakina ripped it back.

In the decider, she broke for 2-1, then again for 5-2, finishing that game with a crisp volley winner that underlined her authority. A few points later, she ended the match with her 12th ace — the same flourish she used to close out the Australian Open eight months earlier.

This was not just a title. It was a season’s work crystallised into one night.

Rybakina completed the best Grand Slam year of her career and carved out a slice of history. She became the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1995 to beat the world No. 1 in a Grand Slam final twice in the same season, echoing Graf’s wins over Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario at Roland Garros and Monica Seles in New York.

On Monday, when the WTA rankings refresh, Rybakina will officially be crowned the 30th woman to reach No. 1 in the Open Era.

Sabalenka’s 72-hour fall

For Sabalenka, the collapse was swift and brutal. In the space of 72 hours, she lost everything that had defined her dominance.

First, the ranking. Then, the US Open crown.

She leaves 2026 without a Grand Slam title — the first time since 2022 she has finished a season empty-handed at the majors. The on-court meltdown after the final, the smashed racquet, the visible fury, all spoke to the scale of the blow.

Yet the defiance remained.

“I don't even know how many weeks I was able to be there, but it was amazing. Let's see if Elena can beat me in that. If she continues playing like that, I'm in trouble,” she said as she departed New York, already looking ahead.

Rybakina has climbed the mountain. Sabalenka has been knocked off it. The question now is not whether the rivalry is real.

It’s how long Rybakina can stay out in front with Sabalenka coming after her again.