“Just a number right now”: Rybakina stops Zheng Qinwen and becomes world No. 1 for the first time
Elena Rybakina lost the opening set, her first of the fortnight, and walked off Arthur Ashe as the world No. 1 for the first time in her career, beating qualifier Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach a first US Open semifinal. Her own verdict on the ranking that ends Aryna Sabalenka’s 99 weeks at the top: “It’s just a number right now.”
Elena Rybakina, US Open 2026 | © Juergen Hasenkopf/Psnewz
Elena Rybakina lost the first set of her quarterfinal and finished the evening as the best-ranked player in the world, the Kazakh No. 2 seed beating Chinese qualifier Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday evening in New York to reach the US Open semifinals for the first time and secure the world No. 1 ranking.
It ends 99 consecutive weeks at the top for Aryna Sabalenka, who has held the position since October 21, 2024 and needed the title here to keep it. Rybakina needed only to reach the semifinals, and she has never been No. 1 before.
The first set was the first she had lost all fortnight. She answered it by taking eleven of the next fourteen games, and she has now beaten Zheng in five of their six meetings and won all seven of her career matches against qualifiers at Grand Slam level.
Rybakina: “my goal is to win the tournaments I play”
Her reaction was measured to the point of indifference. “It’s just a number right now,” she said. “Of course I’m in the semis, so my goal is to win the tournaments I play. I go a match at a time. It’s an amazing achievement.”
The ranking arrives on the back of the best year of her career. It was her 47th win of 2026, a total only Jessica Pegula has bettered, and it takes her to a fifth Grand Slam semifinal. She is the reigning Australian Open champion, having beaten Sabalenka in the final, and the reigning WTA Finals champion, and between last October and March she won twelve consecutive matches against top 10 opponents, seven of them against the top 5 and two against the reigning world No. 1.
She had reached the last eight past American wildcard Thea Frodin 6-3, 6-2, Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-2, 6-4, Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva 7-6 (6), 6-3 and Japanese No. 13 seed Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-4.
Zheng up to ranking No. 52
Zheng leaves as a quarterfinalist for the third time here, a year after elbow surgery restricted her to a single tournament between July 2025 and February 2026 and pushed her ranking to No. 121, which is why she began this fortnight in qualifying.
She was the first female qualifier in a US Open quarterfinal since Emma Raducanu’s title run in 2021, and a win would have made her the first qualifier in the Open era to beat three Grand Slam champions at one major, having already removed Madison Keys 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5 and Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-3, after Russian qualifier Kristina Liutova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 and Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 2-6, 6-1. She returns to No. 52 on Monday.
Rybakina plays the winner of the quarterfinal between Russian No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva and American No. 4 seed Coco Gauff.
US Open 2026, men’s singles quarter finals
A. Sabalenka [1] d. L. Noskova [6]: 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(7)
J. Pegula [3] d. E. Navarro [26]: 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
M. Andreeva [5] vs C. Gauff [4] – not played
Q. Zheng (Q) d. E. Rybakina [2]: 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
