NEW YORK, September 11 — The women’s final at the 2026 US Open is set, and it carries a rare kind of weight: the new world No. 1 against the old one, with a Grand Slam head-to-head score to settle. Elena Rybakina will face Aryna Sabalenka for the title, according to a Yahoo Sports/SB Nation report by Ricky O’Donnell published early Friday. The two semifinals, played Thursday, produced exactly the matchup the draw had been building toward — and one that arrived with a changing of the guard already complete.
Rybakina advanced by defeating Coco Gauff in a comeback win. Sabalenka, the two-time defending US Open champion, beat Jessica Pegula in straight sets to reach her fourth consecutive US Open final.
At its heart, the day belonged to two Americans who ran out of road. Both Pegula and Gauff were eliminated in the semifinals, leaving the home crowd without a finalist. For the first time since 1975, the top four seeds in the women’s singles draw had all reached the semifinals — a statistic that made the last four as deep a field as the tournament has produced in half a century.
Sabalenka walked onto court against Pegula knowing her reign as the top-ranked woman on the WTA Tour was over. Rybakina became the 30th WTA World No. 1 after ending Qinwen Zheng’s run at the tournament.
The ranking had already changed hands before the final was even booked.
A third Grand Slam final
It is the third Grand Slam final contested between Rybakina and Sabalenka, and the winner will own the Grand Slam head-to-head edge in those finals. Sabalenka arrives as the two-time defending champion in New York, chasing a third straight title. The men’s side is still unresolved.
Alexander Zverev made quick work of Botic van de Zandschulp, and Karen Khachanov dispatched an ailing Alexander Blockx to cruise into the semifinals. The remaining men’s semifinalists will be determined by the completion of the men’s quarterfinals and semifinals.
Elsewhere in the men’s draw, the names in the coverage include Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. Novak Djokovic was the first of the big names to suffer a surprise exit, his earliest at a Grand Slam in more than 20 years. What to watch next: the women’s final, where the new No. 1 meets the former one with a Grand Slam final record on the line, and the men’s semifinals, which follow the women’s final being set.
