Rybakina beats Sabalenka to win the US Open and confirm the number one ranking
She won 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 against the top seed and two-time defending champion, days after taking the world number one ranking from her, and after an achilles injury that left her unsure of competing.
Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to win the US Open, succeeding her rival as champion days after taking the world number one ranking from her.
Sabalenka was the top seed and the two-time defending champion.
The match
Rybakina closed out the final in three sets, having taken the first, lost the second from a position of leading, and then won the decider comfortably.
She did it despite problems on her first serve — normally the foundation of her game, and the shot that has made her one of the most devastating strikers in the sport.
Losing a set from 5-4 up and then winning the third 6-2 is the shape of a match decided by who recovered from the setback, rather than by who played better across two hours.
What preceded it
Rybakina arrived in New York carrying an achilles injury that had sidelined her for a week before the tournament and left her uncertain whether she would compete at all.
She also carried the pressure of trying to secure the world number one ranking, which she took from Sabalenka during the fortnight.
In the second week she faced four consecutive grand slam or Olympic champions.
The Guardian describes the past two weeks as the greatest mental performance of her career, and it is the resilience rather than the ball-striking that the account emphasises — she had not always played her best tennis in New York this year.
The standing it settles
Rybakina had won grand slam titles before and had succeeded on all surfaces. She had nonetheless been considered something less than the very best of her era, on the reasoning that a couple of players above her were more consistent and mentally tougher.
She leaves New York as the undisputed best player in the world, and the new standard-bearer of the women's game.
Winning the ranking and then beating the player she took it from, in that player's own title defence, removes the qualification.
The rivalry
The final was the latest instalment of a rivalry that has run through the season, and the Guardian describes it as another spectacular tussle between the two.
Sabalenka was defending a title she had won in each of the previous two years, in front of a crowd that had watched her do it.
What comes next
The ranking is now hers by both measures that matter — the points table and the result on the court. The season's remaining events will test whether it holds.
