Rybakina Dethrones Sabalenka to Win First US Open Title and Take World No. 1
Elena Rybakina arrived in New York chasing a title.
She leaves with considerably more.
The Kazakh defeated two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the US Open women’s singles final, completing a tournament that delivered her first title in New York, a third Grand Slam crown and confirmation that she will sit at the top of the women’s game as world No. 1.
Sabalenka forced the final into a deciding set, but Rybakina refused to surrender the initiative when the championship tightened.
One more set separated her from the trophy.
She took it 6-2.
And with it came a shift in the balance of women’s tennis. The result and scoreline were also carried in the editor’s morning sports signal.
From first New York semifinal to champion
Rybakina’s run was already historic before she reached the final.
She had never previously gone beyond the fourth round at the US Open. This year, she broke through that barrier, reached her first semifinal at Flushing Meadows and secured the world No. 1 ranking by defeating Zheng Qinwen in the quarter-finals. She then recovered from a set down against Coco Gauff to reach Saturday’s championship match.
The reward was a confrontation with the player who had controlled New York for two years.
Sabalenka entered the final chasing a third consecutive US Open championship and a fifth Grand Slam title. She had also reached the championship match after extending her winning streak at the tournament to 19 matches.
Rybakina ended both runs.
Sabalenka fights back, but Rybakina owns the finish
There was no easy coronation.
Rybakina took the opening set 6-4, but Sabalenka responded by winning the second 7-5 and dragging the match into the kind of deciding-set pressure where championship histories are often written.
This time it was Rybakina who dictated the ending.
She took the third set 6-2, denying Sabalenka the three-peat and completing a season in which her Grand Slam ceiling has shifted dramatically.
Rybakina had already won the 2026 Australian Open, meaning the US Open gives her two major titles this season and three overall, adding to her 2022 Wimbledon championship.
That makes New York part of something bigger than one tournament.
It confirms 2026 as the year Rybakina stopped merely threatening the top of women’s tennis and took control of it.
No. 1 was secured before the trophy
The ranking breakthrough actually came before Saturday’s final.
By reaching the US Open semifinals, Rybakina guaranteed that she would become the 30th woman to reach world No. 1 when the rankings update. Her run ended Sabalenka’s 99-week stay at the summit.
Rybakina had made clear during the tournament that titles mattered more to her than rankings.
Now she has both.
The US Open crown gives the ranking change competitive weight. She did not simply accumulate enough points to reach No. 1. She reached the summit while defeating the woman she was replacing in a Grand Slam final.
That is as direct a transfer of power as the sport can provide.
A rivalry with heavier stakes
The final also deepened one of the defining match-ups in the women’s game.
Before Saturday, Sabalenka held a 10-7 head-to-head advantage over Rybakina. The pair had already traded Australian Open final victories — Sabalenka winning in 2023 before Rybakina answered in Melbourne this year.
New York raised the stakes again.
This time, Rybakina took the title, the major and the No. 1 ranking into the same weekend.
Sabalenka leaves without the historic three-peat she was chasing.
Rybakina leaves with the trophy and the summit.
The women’s game has a new No. 1
Rybakina’s power has never been the mystery.
The question was whether she could turn it into sustained control across the biggest tournaments.
In 2026, the answer has arrived emphatically.
Australian Open champion.
US Open champion.
World No. 1.
And after surviving Sabalenka’s resistance in a three-set final, Rybakina has done more than win New York.
She has made the strongest possible claim to being the player setting the pace at the top of women’s tennis.
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