Aryna Sabalenka has learned the hard way that she has two brutal rivals in women’s tennis: Elena Rybakina, and her own bubbling frustration.
Unfortunately for the four-time major champion, both were present inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday.
Over more than two hours of heavy-slugging tennis, Rybakina pushed the premier hard court player of this generation to her limit. First she broke Sabalenka’s serve. Then she broke her resolve. And by the end of the afternoon, Rybakina had beaten the two-time defending champion 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to secure the first U.S. Open title of her career.
Tennis – U.S. Open – Flushing Meadows, New York, United States – September 12, 2026 Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina celebrates winning her women’s singles final match as Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka smashes her racquet after losing IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Geoff Burke
Rybakina, a 6-foot specialist in power, is now a three-time major champion, after winning Wimbledon in 2022 and the Australian Open earlier this season—where she also happened to defeat Sabalenka in the final. As an added reward, she will also take over as the new world No. 1 on Monday.
In Rybakina, Sabalenka seemed to face a tidier version of herself. The 27-year-old from Moscow, who switched allegiance to Kazakhstan in 2018 in search of greater support, is the deadliest server on the women’s circuit. Rybakina also leads the tour in aces and is capable of spending entire matches firing from the baseline. The pair was so evenly matched, in fact, that their head-to-head record on hard courts sat at precisely 7-7.
But in their 15th meeting on this surface, Rybakina found extra control when she needed it most. For much of the match, the average rally length was just three shots. Yet behind the same impenetrable expression, she found 36 winners to Sabalenka’s 32 and committed 11 fewer unforced errors.
“It’s so difficult to play against you,” Rybakina told Sabalenka afterward. “I was dying on the court.”
At her best, Sabalenka is practically untouchable. Her groundstrokes come in like major-league sliders and every shot seems to end up kissing a line. That’s how she crushed Jessica Pegula in straight sets in the semifinals. But staying out of her own head when things break against her is proving to be the greatest challenge she faces.
“The biggest thing…is her understanding that this is just part of the deal,” Jason Stacy, who serves as Sabalenka’s performance coach, said before the final. “Like, we’ve chosen to be here, that this is actually a good thing, that pressure can actually be fuel.”
For the most part, it works. Sabalenka is as consistently excellent as anyone on tour. This week, she became the first man or woman to reach eight consecutive major finals on hard courts. The problems only seem to begin once she gets to those decisive Saturdays.
This time, it only took until the fifth game. When Rybakina notched her first break of the match to seize a 3-2 lead in the first set, Sabalenka responded by angrily launching a ball high into the stands. She received a code violation from the umpire and went to sit in her chair, her head covered by a towel.
Sabalenka appeared to recover in the second set and carved out her best opportunities of the match late on. Leading 5-4, she worked her way to two break points—her first two of the match—only to hand both of them back. Sabalenka eventually closed it out 7-5 and the momentum inside Ashe seemed to swing.
But Rybakina wasn’t flustered. She produced another break of Sabalenka’s serve in the third game of the set and defended her advantage with clinical precision. Soon, Rybakina was ready to conclude the final major of the greatest season of her career the same way she ended the first: serving for a major trophy.
Once it was over, Sabalenka could only congratulate her at the net—before retreating to her chair and smashing her racket to pieces.
