Sabalenka against Rybakina, the champion against the new No. 1: the US Open is set for a thrilling final
The US Open final is between the outgoing world No. 1 and the incoming one. Aryna Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 to reach an eighth consecutive Grand Slam final on hard courts, a record nobody in the Open era has matched, and Elena Rybakina beat Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to reach her first final here and confirm the ranking she takes from Sabalenka on Monday.
Elena Rybakina and Coco Gauff, US Open 2026 | © Frank Franklin II/AP/SIPA
The US Open final will be played between the woman who has been world No. 1 for 99 consecutive weeks and the woman who takes the ranking from her on Monday. Aryna Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday night in New York, and Elena Rybakina beat Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 later the same evening, and between them they have already settled the ranking and now have to settle the title.
Rybakina had secured the position by reaching the semifinals, and will become the 30th player to hold the WTA No. 1 ranking and the first from Kazakhstan. Sabalenka has held it since October 21, 2024. She needed the title here to keep it and can no longer keep it at all.
Until Thursday night the tournament was one result each away from an all-American final, between the champion of 2023 and the runner-up of 2024. Neither got there, and Michelle Obama was in the stadium to watch both of them lose.
Since the Australian Open moved to hard courts in 1988, only one other pair before Sabalenka and Rybakina had contested both the Australian Open and US Open finals in the same season, Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1994. Rybakina won in Melbourne nine months ago.
Sabalenka’s eighth straight hard-court major final is a first
The first semifinal was a rematch of the 2024 final and the 2025 semifinal, both of which Sabalenka also won. “No complaints. I’m super happy I was able to pull out such tennis,” she said afterwards. “The last match I played against Jessica it was almost impossible for me to get the win.” She then addressed a stadium that had wanted the other result. “Thank you for the atmosphere. Your respect to me is priceless. I know you wanted her to win, it’s obvious. But thank you for being so respectful to me.”
Sabalenka has now reached four consecutive US Open finals, and eight consecutive Grand Slam finals on hard courts, which no player of either gender has managed in the Open era. The previous mark was seven, held by Steffi Graf at the US Open between 1987 and 1990, Martina Hingis at the Australian Open between 1997 and 2000 and Novak Djokovic at the US Open between 2010 and 2013.
It is her ninth Grand Slam final, her 46th win of the season and her 62nd over a top 10 opponent, and one more win makes her the first player to win three straight US Open titles since Serena Williams between 2012 and 2014.
Rybakina completes her set of hard-court finals
Rybakina had never been past the fourth round here before this fortnight. It is her fourth Grand Slam final and she has now reached the final at three of the four majors.
Rybakina described a match decided by a handful of points and by a second serve she could not attack. “Of course there were nerves. Coco is a great player. It’s always tough to play her. Even if sometimes her first serve doesn’t go, the second one is so heavy it’s difficult to dictate the rallies. I took a deep breath, tried to talk positive with myself, and just told myself I need to fight and try to show good tennis.”
On the set that settled it: “It was such a close third set. I feel like I got a bit lucky on her serve. Couple of deep returns, one mistake from her, it went quickly my way. I think it was really a battle. A few moments went my way. In the end I was just trying to be focused and stay aggressive and somehow won the match.”
It was her 48th win of the season, her ninth of 2026 against a top 10 opponent and the 40th of her career, and it makes her the fifth player in two decades to reach both the Australian Open and US Open finals in the same year, after Justine Henin in 2006, Victoria Azarenka in 2012 and 2013, Angelique Kerber in 2016 and Sabalenka between 2023 and 2025. Beating Gauff also made her one of only two active players to have beaten former champions at all four Grand Slam events, alongside Serena Williams.
The last four was itself a rarity. The top four seeds have filled the women’s semifinals at the US Open only once before in the Open era, in 1975, when Chris Evert, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratilova and Evonne Goolagong got there and Evert won the final. The most recent instance at any major was Wimbledon in 2009.
Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 10-7, but Rybakina won the most recent meeting that mattered most, the Australian Open final in January.
