Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in Saturday's US Open women's final at Arthur Ashe Stadium, winning her first US Open title, denying Sabalenka a bid for three straight championships, and setting up a changing of the guard atop the WTA rankings. It was Rybakina's third Grand Slam trophy overall, to go with Wimbledon in 2022 and this year's Australian Open.
Rybakina broke Sabalenka's serve twice in a tight opening set before the defending champion clawed back to force a decider, then closed out the match by dropping only three points on her own serve across the final set. She finished with 12 aces to Sabalenka's six and won 103 of 193 total points, according to match statistics, while Sabalenka was uncharacteristically error-prone early, piling up unforced errors in the first set before settling in for her second-set rally. The win was worth a record $5.5 million, part of a US Open purse that grew 20 percent this year to $108 million.
Rybakina had reached one previous US Open semifinal but never a final in ten appearances at Flushing Meadows, and she said the run caught her off guard given a nagging injury she carried into the tournament.
It's tough to find words right now, honestly. 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.
Elena Rybakina
She added that a decade of near-misses in New York had finally turned: "I'd been coming here for the last 10 years, and it was never successful. Nothing close to that... I'm falling in love with New York more and more." The victory also extended her hold over the top of the sport — Saturday marked her tenth career win against a world No. 1, six of them against Sabalenka specifically.
Sabalenka's reign ends, briefly interrupted
Sabalenka had won the past two US Open titles and was chasing a third in a row, which would have made her the first woman to three-peat at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams won three straight from 2012 through 2014. Instead, the loss costs her the No. 1 ranking she had held for 99 consecutive weeks; Rybakina takes over the top spot when the WTA rankings update Monday. Sabalenka still leads their head-to-head series, now 10-8, but has lost three of their last four meetings, including this year's Australian Open final in January.
Sabalenka was blunt in her own assessment afterward, crediting Rybakina's serve and aggression rather than pointing to her own execution.
I'm obviously not really happy with the level I played today, but she served incredible. She played really aggressive, great tennis. Yeah, she was simply a better player today than me.
Aryna Sabalenka
The result caps a women's draw in which Rybakina had to get past Coco Gauff in the semifinals before facing a Sabalenka who arrived in New York as the two-time defending champion. For Rybakina, whose big serve and flat groundstrokes have long made her a threat on hard courts, the win validates a game that has sometimes been overshadowed by the sport's more demonstrative stars.
What's next
The tournament's attention now shifts to Sunday's men's final, where Ben Shelton faces Alexander Zverev at Arthur Ashe with a chance to become the first American man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick in 2003. Shelton reached his first major final by beating Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals, while Zverev, a Grand Slam champion himself as of earlier this year, is playing in his third consecutive major final. Rybakina, for her part, will next turn to the WTA's Asian hard-court swing as the new world No. 1, a ranking she takes into the season's final stretch before the year-end WTA Finals in Riyadh.
