Key events
Road to the final. Despite all the questions over Sabalenka’s form and frame of mind coming into this tournament, and her tense exchanges with reporters in the early rounds, she’s reached her fourth consecutive US Open final for the loss of only one set – which came in a high-quality quarter-final against the Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova. Sabalenka saw off Noskova in a super tie-break, before playing her best match in months against Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals. Rybakina, meanwhile, didn’t drop a set until the quarter-finals (she was flawless against Naomi Osaka in the last 16) – then came from a set down against Zheng Qinwen and Coco Gauff, dealing so well with having nearly 24,000 fans against her when playing Gauff. So she’s battle ready.
Tale of the tape
Sabalenka – Rybakina
28 Age 27
1 Seeding 2
1 World ranking 2 (though not for much longer…)
4 Grand slam titles 2
9 Grand slam finals (including today) 4
24 Singles titles 13
10 Head-to-head 7
Tumaini Carayol
Meanwhile here’s Tumaini’s excellent preview of the women’s final:
A typically understated Elena Rybakina stepped up to the microphone for her speech after her triumph at Indian Wells in 2023, her long-awaited first WTA 1000 title, and one of her first objectives was to recognise the efforts of her opponent. Rybakina congratulated Aryna Sabalenka on a strong fortnight and noted that it was the first time she had beaten the Belarusian. Sabalenka’s mouth instantly curled into a mischievous grin and, as ever, she could not halt her impulsive thoughts: “I will make sure it is the last time,” Sabalenka said, laughing. Rybakina, herself also smiling, responded instantly: “No. No, no, no. We’ll see next time.”
There has since been a next time, another next time and several next times after that and as Sabalenka and Rybakina, the top two players in the world, face off at the US Open, this latest encounter proves beyond doubt they have established themselves as one of the best recent rivalries in women’s tennis.
The statistics alone are impressive. It was only in 1988 that the Australian Open shifted to hard courts. Since then, this is just the second time that the same two female players have met in the final of the Australian Open and US Open, the two hard-court grand slams. Like Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in 1994, the only other players to do so, these two finals were also preceded by a meeting at the WTA Finals at the end of the previous year.
In the buildup to this final, the dominant storyline in the women’s tour was the second seed Rybakina’s pursuit of Sabalenka’s No 1 ranking, which she sealed by defeating the Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen to reach the semi-finals here for the first time. This is just the third time in the 21st century that a grand slam final will be decided between two players who will switch places at the No 1 spot after the tournament. On both previous occasions, Caroline Wozniacki’s win over Simona Halep at the 2018 Australian Open and Serena Williams’s triumph over her sister, Venus, at Wimbledon in 2002, the match was won by the incoming No 1.
It seemed for a while that the rivalry between Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek was destined to define this era. They were, and still are, the two most successful players of this current generation and they have played some classic matches against each other. Somehow, fortune has conspired against them. Despite twice being one point away from doing so – Sabalenka held match point against Karolina Muchova in their 2023 French Open semi-final and Swiatek the same against Madison Keys in the 2025 Australian Open semi-final – they have still never contested a grand slam final.
You can read the rest here:
And Britain’s Alfie Hewett has won his fifth wheelchair singles title in New York, beating his great rival and top seed Tokito Oda 6-0, 7-6 (5), to end a run of four successive losses to Oda in grand slam finals and stop the Japanese player from completing a calendar slam. Hewett said afterwards that he had been desperate to prove something to himself having won only two games against Oda in the Wimbledon final two months ago.
Already today in the men’s doubles: the British-American duo of Neal Skupski and Christian Harrison have done what Rybakina hopes to do later, adding the US Open title to the Australian Open crown they won in January, to claim a grand slam hard-court double. They defeated Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz 6-4, 7-6 (6) after saving a set point in the second-set tie-break. It’s a case of third time lucky for Skupski after he was a beaten finalist in New York in 2022 and last year with different partners.
Preamble
After an A+++ women’s tournament, in which we’ve seen so many must-watch matches (take your pick between this, this, this, this or this), captivating comebacks (much respect to Zheng Qinwen) and the top seeds eventually asserting their authority, it seems fitting that it all ends here: Aryna Sabalenka v Elena Rybakina, the world No 1 for the past 99 weeks v the player who will replace her at the top of the rankings on Monday.
When these two are at their best no one else on tour can live with them – well, apart from peak Iga Swiatek – though it’s been a while since we’ve seen that version of the Pole at the grand slams. But, up until this tournament, it had been a while since we’d seen the best version of Sabalenka too. Having not claimed a slam title this year or reached a final since she won Miami in March, amid a series of defeats to much lower-ranked players during the summer, the two-time defending US Open champion has rediscovered her form this fortnight, gaining momentum and equilibrium as the rounds have gone by. She looks intent on salvaging her slam season In New York – as she did last year too – and losing her No 1 ranking will no doubt make her even more determined to prove a point today, while Rybakina will be full of confidence and feeling on top of the world, quite literally, after scaling the summit for the first time in her career.
They haven’t entered Navratilova v Evert territory yet (the recent documentary about the 80 matches (!) those two played and their friendship off the court is brilliant, btw), but Sabalenka v Rybakina is turning into quite a rivalry. This will be the fourth time they’ve contested a final in the past 10 months – Rybakina prevailed at last year’s season-ending WTA Finals and this year’s Australian Open, before Sabalenka triumphed in Indian Wells – and their third grand slam final overall, with the pair holding one win apiece. Both of those were closely contested three-setters, so there are high hopes of this turning into a trilogy of classics today.
Despite the variation Sabalenka has added to her game in recent years, this is power v power, arguably the best groundstrokes in women’s tennis v the best serve, an arm wrestle for first-strike supremacy between two players so similar in style but different in personality, with the contrast between Sabalenka’s volatility and Rybakina’s composure adding even more appeal to this potentially era-defining rivalry.
The players will be on court: at about 4pm New York time/9pm BST. So get settled in with some Honey Deuces and do get in touch with any thoughts or predictions.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/sep/12/aryna-sabalenka-v-elena-rybakina-us-open-2026-womens-singles-final-live
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