NEW YORK Elena Rybakina was not sure she would even play this tournament. An Achilles injury had sidelined her for a week before the US Open. On Saturday, 12 September 2026, she walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium with the title, a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over Aryna Sabalenka that ended the two-time defending champion’s reign, and the world No. 1 ranking that goes live on Monday.
It is her first US Open title, her second Grand Slam of the year after the Australian Open in January, and her third in all, on top of Wimbledon in 2022. She had already made sure of the top ranking days earlier; the trophy settled everything else.
How the final was won
The first set stayed on serve until the fifth game, when Rybakina broke. That was the only break of the set. Sabalenka answered by taking the second 7-5, and for a stretch the match felt like it had swung her way.
Rybakina reset. She broke for 2-1 early in the third set, then again for 5-2, and sealed the title on her 12th ace after two hours and 21 minutes. The final numbers show the gap: 85% of first-serve points won, 24 unforced errors to Sabalenka’s 35.
She admitted afterward that none of it was expected. “It’s tough to find words right now, honestly,” Rybakina said on court. “I didn’t expect anything like this coming into this tournament. I’d been dealing a little bit with an injury, but somehow everything aligned on my side.”
Her praise went to the player across the net. “You are a great champion. It’s so difficult to play against you. You push to such limits,” she told Sabalenka.
A rivalry with the lead intact
They had met eight times since the start of 2025, four of them this season. Sabalenka still leads the rivalry 10-8, and the first of their Grand Slam finals, in Melbourne in 2023, went her way. Rybakina has now beaten her in both major finals this year. The two matches before this one, at Indian Wells and in a Miami semifinal, had gone Sabalenka’s way.
When the trophy came, Sabalenka fought back tears. “The last thing I want to do right now is give a speech, but I’ll try my best,” she said, and managed a joke about letting Rybakina enjoy the next few weeks so she could win some titles herself. Then her voice dropped. “I wish I could have performed a bit better, but I guess next year”.
She leaves 2026 without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 2022, and with a racket smashed to pieces on the Ashe court.
What the title changes
The route had asked plenty of the champion. In the semifinal she recovered from a set down against Coco Gauff to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in front of a crowd pulling hard for the home player. Most of the stadium wanted Gauff through, she said at the time, and she chose to block it out. Four consecutive Grand Slam or Olympic champions stood across from her in the second week. She cleared them all.
Rybakina, 27, now holds the US Open, the Australian Open and the WTA Finals, the three biggest hard-court prizes in the sport, and joins a short list of three-time major champions that includes Ash Barty and Virginia Wade. Only the French Open is missing from her collection. Laura Robson, working the broadcast, put it flatly: “I think she’s going to win many, many more slams”.
Her smile widened when the winner’s cheque of $5.5m came out, and again when Maria Sharapova, the champion here 20 years ago, handed her the trophy with fireworks going off behind her.
New York had never given her a week like this. “I’d been coming here for the last 10 years, and it was never successful. Nothing close to that,” Rybakina said. “I’m falling in love with New York more and more.”
Sources
- US Open 2026: Elena Rybakina wins her first title and rises to world No. 1
- Elena Rybakina beats Aryna Sabalenka to win US Open for first time – as it happened | US Open Tennis 2026 | The Guardian
