Rybakina beats Sabalenka in three sets for her first US Open title

Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the US Open final on Saturday, her first title in New York and her third at a major after Wimbledon in 2022 and the Australian Open in January. The match on Arthur Ashe Stadium lasted two hours and 21 minutes and ended with Rybakina's twelfth ace. Sabalenka, the champion of the past two years, had won 20 matches in a row at the tournament and was trying to become the third woman of the Open Era, after Chris Evert and Serena Williams, to win it three times running.

The match

Rybakina landed 27 per cent of her first serves in the opening set and won it anyway. She broke for 3-2 when Sabalenka double-faulted, and Sabalenka hit a ball into the stands and was given a code violation straight afterwards. Sabalenka made 15 unforced errors in the set and did not earn a break point.

The second set was the better one. Rybakina's first-serve percentage rose to 61, she missed two break points of her own, and at 4-5 she saved two set points to hold for 5-5. Sabalenka's first break came in the twelfth game, with Rybakina serving at 5-6 to stay in the set, and the 7-5 levelled the final at a set each. Sabalenka had a good deal of the crowd with her by then, according to Sportschau's report.

Rybakina broke for 2-1 in the third set, then broke again for 5-2 with a volley winner. She served two double faults in the last game and won the title on her second match point, with an ace down the middle. Sabalenka smashed her racket after the final point.

"It's tough to find the words right now," Rybakina said at the ceremony. "I'm falling in love with New York more and more." In her press conference she said the final had been no easier than the earlier ones: "Definitely I was nervous the same as other Slams finals. You don't sleep so well. You don't eat that well." Sabalenka said it was "really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of the Grand Slam", and later: "As experience shows, I only come back stronger."

The new No. 1

Rybakina had already secured the No. 1 ranking on Wednesday, when she beat Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals, and takes it over officially on Monday. She is the 30th woman to hold it since the rankings began in 1975 and the first from Kazakhstan. At 27 years and 89 days she is the second-oldest player to reach No. 1 for the first time, behind Angelique Kerber in 2016. Sabalenka's second spell at the top ran for 99 consecutive weeks from 21 October 2024; her 107 weeks in total place her tenth on the all-time list, and she drops to No. 2 on Monday.

The title is Rybakina's 14th on the tour and her third of the season, after Melbourne and Stuttgart. She is the third woman since 2000 to win the Australian Open and the US Open in the same year, after Kerber in 2016 and Sabalenka in 2024. The rivalry is now 18 matches old: Sabalenka leads 10-8 overall, Rybakina 8-7 on hard courts, and Rybakina has won the last three, in the WTA Finals title match in November, the Australian Open final and this one. "We push each other to be better after such tough battles," she said.

She arrived in New York a week after retiring from her Cincinnati quarterfinal against Iga Świątek with a foot injury, and did no court work before the tournament, only rehabilitation, according to Reem Abulleil's report for the Roland-Garros website. She then lost no set in her first four matches, against Thea Frodin, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Yuliia Starodubtseva and Naomi Osaka, before coming from a set down against Zheng and then against Coco Gauff, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals. Before this fortnight she had never been past the fourth round here.

Sabalenka's fortnight

Sabalenka, 28, reached the final by beating Camila Osorio, Polina Iatcenko, Kamilla Rakhimova and Taylor Townsend in straight sets, Linda Nosková 7-6 (1), 3-6, 7-6 (10-7) in the quarterfinals and Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals. It was the first US Open final between the top two seeds since 2013, in a tournament where all four top seeds reached the semifinals for the first time since 1975.

The defeat is her fifth in nine major finals and leaves her without a Grand Slam title in 2026, her first such season since 2022. Asked about the end of her run at No. 1, she said: "If she continues to play like that, then yeah, I'm in trouble."

Prize money and what comes next

Rybakina earns $5.5 million, the largest champion's cheque in tennis, and Sabalenka $2.8 million. The winner takes 2,000 ranking points and the runner-up 1,300. Rybakina leads the Race to the WTA Finals by 1,007 points. Her lead in the 52-week ranking is a separate matter: she is the defending champion in Ningbo and at the Finals in Riyadh, so the points from last autumn come off in October and November.

The men's final followed on Sunday, and Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 for his second major of the year, in three hours and 33 minutes. Shelton, in his first major final four days after knocking out Alcaraz at 3:33 a.m. on Wednesday, was trying to become the first American man to win a major since Andy Roddick here in 2003.