Ninety-nine weeks, ended in a semi-final
Elena Rybakina reached the US Open final overnight in New York, beating Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. She lost the opening set, took control of the second, and from there never really let the American back in.
Gauff had openings in both the second and third. She did not convert them. Rybakina held serve at every moment that mattered. It is her second final at Flushing Meadows, after the title she won in Melbourne in January.
Hours earlier, Aryna Sabalenka had dispatched Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2, hitting 29 winners to the American’s 12. “No complaints. I’m just really happy I was able to produce tennis like that,” she said afterwards.
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The ranking changed hands before the final
The semi-final carried more than a place in Saturday’s match. Rybakina, seeded second, needed only to reach the last four to take back the world No 1 ranking. She has done it, ending a run of 99 consecutive weeks at the top for Sabalenka.
The Kazakh had already beaten Sabalenka in the Australian Open final this year, then closed the gap in the Race during a patchy American summer for the Belarusian. Saturday is her shot at a third Grand Slam title.
Nineteen straight wins in New York
Sabalenka has not lost at the US Open since the 2023 final against Gauff. Nineteen consecutive victories. Pegula has run into that streak twice, in the 2024 final and in last year’s semi-finals.
Win on Saturday and Sabalenka becomes the first woman to take three New York titles in a row since Serena Williams between 2012 and 2014. One more oddity from this tournament: the top four seeds all reached the women’s semi-finals, something that had not happened since 1975.
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