US Open 2026: It’s a double celebration for Rybakina

Facing the woman she is unseating at the top of the charts, Rybakina claimed a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory on Saturday to deny Aryna Sabalenka the US Open threepeat she wanted so desperately.

“It's going to be very different to wake up next morning knowing that you won just US Open, achieved No.1 ranking, and it's kind of relief because you do all the routines for the past two, three weeks. It's a lot of work, a lot of nerves also,” said Rybakina in her post-final press conference.

“Yeah, I feel that it's going to be amazing to wake up knowing that you achieved such big things.”

In a rematch of their Australian Open final from earlier this year, Rybakina once again had the upper hand against her familiar foe, one she has now faced on 18 occasions.

Sabalenka leads their head-to-head 10-8, but Rybakina has the edge on hard courts 8-7 in what is fast becoming the defining rivalry of this generation of women’s tennis.

Now a three-time Grand Slam champion (Wimbledon 2022, Australian Open 2026, US Open 2026), Rybakina enters the final stretch of the season carrying a 1,007-point cushion at the summit of the Race to the WTA Finals.

It sets up an interesting closing few weeks of the tour, with Rybakina defending a significant number of points – she won Ningbo and the WTA Finals at the end of last season – which might keep the year-end No.1 ranking in play until the dying moments of the 2026 campaign.

“I don't know what future will bring, but it's always very difficult matches against Aryna, and I feel like we push each other to be better after such tough battles,” said Rybakina.

“Yeah, I feel like not only with her, with also other players, top players. You always want to try something new, to change in your game, to be better. I don't know what the future is going to bring, but I hope success and some more wins.”

Elena the Ice Queen of Queens

The final was a battle between fire and ice, and it was ice that prevailed as Rybakina kept her cool throughout the two-hour 21-minute affair.

The Kazakh star didn’t have everything going for her, but adapted and eventually did the best with what she had.

In the opening set, Rybakina landed a measly 27 percent of her first serves in, but still found a way to take a one-set lead as Sabalenka failed to take advantage of her opponent’s second serves, created zero break point chances and committed 15 unforced errors in that frame.

The top seed was visibly frustrated throughout the match, even when she snuck away with the second set by getting her first break of the contest in game 12.

Rybakina was unrattled and hit back in the decider, and closed out the win on her second match point, recovering from two nervy double faults in the final game.

“Definitely I was nervous the same as other Slams finals. You don't sleep so well. You don't eat that well,” she explained later.

“I feel like this tournament was just kind of more stressful because I was playing for No.1 one of the matches, and then, of course, this injury which happened the week before. So every day was kind of a challenge, but I felt like in these situations I was more calm than when similar things were happening before.”

Indeed, Rybakina had a lot to deal with this US Open. A week before the tournament, she sustained a foot injury that forced her to retire from her Cincinnati quarter-final against Iga Swiatek. She had to stay off the court the entire time in the build-up to New York, and spent hours every day in the gym and the treatment room rehabbing her foot.

The recovery plan worked and she ended up triumphing at a tournament where she had never previously advanced beyond the fourth round. It’s an incredible feat that showcases the level of resilience Rybakina possesses.

Sabalenka back to the drawing board

For Sabalenka, it was her fifth defeat in nine major finals and she finishes the Grand Slam season without a major trophy won in that calendar year for the first time since 2022.

The 28-year-old let her emotions dictate her performance on Saturday but insists she’ll come back stronger.

“I think overall I should be happy with the level I played, and there's lots of things to take from this tournament. I mean, as experience shows, that I only come back stronger and all of these lessons this season definitely already made me stronger, but definitely going to motivate me for the next year to do better job,” said the four-time major champion.

Sabalenka was trying to become just the third woman in the Open Era to win three consecutive US Opens, but that honour remains exclusive to Chris Evert and Serena Williams for now.

“It's really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of the Grand Slam and when you were trying to go for the threepeat,” said Sabalenka when asked about tossing the ball into the stands in frustration and smashing her racquet after the match.

“So I just wanted to let it go, because if I would hold it inside, right now or here or there on the court, I wouldn't be able to say a word or I would just go not really nice over there. So I just wanted to let all of that aggression and disappointment go outside.”

Sabalenka’s streak of 99 consecutive weeks at world No.1 has ended (she spent 107 weeks in total at the top across two stints) as Rybakina becomes the new world No.1 on Monday.

Despite her disappointment, Sabalenka was able to crack a joke in her press conference about getting leapfrogged at the top.

“I think it's an incredible achievement, and I don't even know how many weeks I was able to be there. 99? Well, that's amazing. Let's see if Elena can beat me in that,” she said laughing. If she continues to play like that, then yeah, I'm in trouble.”