Elena Rybakina Wins First US Open Title and Becomes No. 1

Under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, with New York humming and the celebrity seats glittering, Elena Rybakina stepped through the noise and took the biggest title of her career.

She did it the hard way, too.

The 25-year-old Kazakh star toppled two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in a bruising, momentum-swinging US Open women’s singles final on Saturday night, winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to claim her first title in New York, her third Grand Slam overall, and the No. 1 ranking in the world.

On a night made for spectacle, the tennis matched the setting.

A champion made on the biggest stage

Rybakina’s game has always looked built for hard courts: heavy first serve, flat, skidding groundstrokes, and a temperament that barely flickers under pressure. All of it was on display against Sabalenka, who arrived as the sport’s most ferocious front‑runner and the woman chasing a US Open three‑peat.

The opening set belonged to Rybakina’s discipline. She absorbed Sabalenka’s pace, redirected it, and pounced on just enough second serves to tilt the balance. One break was all she needed. At 6-4, she had struck first, quieting both Sabalenka and a crowd that had come expecting a street fight.

The fight arrived in the second.

Sabalenka, never one to retreat, swung harder. Errors still came, but so did the winners, and the pressure began to climb. Rybakina served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, the trophy and the top ranking within reach. Sabalenka ripped that chance away, breaking back and roaring through the next two games. The Belarusian took the set 7-5, and suddenly the night felt like it might belong to the reigning queen again.

Instead, the decider turned into a statement.

Rybakina reset, tightened her patterns, and turned the third set into a clinic in controlled aggression. Her serve reappeared when she needed it most; her backhand, so often her barometer, held up under Sabalenka’s barrage. The rallies lengthened, and Sabalenka’s frustration grew. The errors mounted. The scoreboard ran away.

From 2-2 in the third, Rybakina slammed the door, reeling off four straight games to close it out 6-2. No fist-pumping theatrics, just the quiet certainty of a player who knew exactly what this meant: New York conquered, and the No. 1 spot locked in.

A-listers, lenses, and side stories in the stands

The tennis shared the stage with a distinctly Hollywood backdrop.

Pink, Amy Adams, and Elizabeth Banks watched the final together, the singer in heart-shaped red-tinted sunglasses and a denim jacket, laughing in the stands between points. Her appearance came a day after she publicly addressed backlash over her criticism of Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian performances and her reposted call for his removal from Ed Sheeran’s tour. On Saturday, the conversation around her shifted to forehands and backhands.

Andrew Garfield walked the blue carpet, then settled into the stadium in a navy zip-up jacket, matching pants, and sunglasses, blending into a crowd that was anything but ordinary. Paris Hilton and her husband Carter Reum took in the match, while Jake Paul watched alongside fiancée Jutta Leerdam, the pair caught on camera checking their phones between points and sharing a kiss as the tension built on court.

Brad Pitt and Ines de Ramon added more star wattage, captured side by side as the final unfolded. Nearby, Andy Cohen sat with Diplo, and Spike Lee — a US Open regular — drew his usual share of camera time, waving enthusiastically to the crowd. Saturday Night Live’s Marcello Hernández was also among those packing Arthur Ashe.

History watching history

Tennis royalty had front-row seats to the changing of the guard.

Billie Jean King, the 12-time Grand Slam singles champion and four-time US Open winner, watched as another chapter was written in a stadium that bears her name across the wider complex. The echoes of her era lingered over a night that underscored how global and star-studded the women’s game has become.

Maria Sharapova, who won the US Open in 2006, stepped back into the spotlight for the trophy ceremony, presenting Rybakina with the prize exactly 20 years after lifting it herself. The symmetry was impossible to miss: a former champion handing the baton to a player now positioned to shape the sport’s next few seasons.

Around them, actors and personalities like Abigail Spencer, Fran Drescher, and Tyriq Withers dotted the stands, part of a celebrity roll call that had already swelled during the men’s semifinals, when names such as Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, and Nicole Kidman turned up.

On this night, though, the cameras kept coming back to one figure.

Rybakina stood on the baseline, trophy in hand, a new US Open champion and the sport’s new No. 1. Under the glare of New York’s brightest court, with stars on every side of her, she looked exactly where she belongs.