Rybakina Wins the US Open, Takes the No. 1 Ranking
The 30th World No. 1 in 51 Years
Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 on Saturday at Arthur Ashe Stadium to win the 2026 US Open women's title, her third Grand Slam and second of this season. On Monday morning, when the WTA rankings updated, she became the 30th player to hold the world No. 1 ranking since the system began in 1975. She is the first Kazakhstani player ever to win a major or reach the top ranking in any discipline. The match was not straightforward. Rybakina took the first set with two breaks of serve, lost the second in a tiebreak, then came back in the third with a precision that ended any doubt: she dropped just three points on serve in the final set. The win broke Sabalenka's 19-match winning streak at Flushing Meadows and handed her a second straight US Open final loss to the same opponent. Rybakina won 103 of 193 points played and finished with 36 winners against 32 unforced errors.
Grand Slams won by Rybakina
3 (Wimbledon 2022, AO 2026, USO 2026)
2026 season win-loss record
49-13 (79%)
Career wins over the sitting world No. 1
10 (6 against Sabalenka alone)
Prize money per singles champion
$5.5M (up from $5M in 2025)
WTA world No. 1 ranking (career first)
30th player in 51-year history
Grand Slams needed for career Grand Slam
1 (Roland Garros)
Only Steffi Graf Did This Before
The historical comparison that keeps coming up is Steffi Graf in 1995. Graf is the only other player to beat a reigning world No. 1 in two Grand Slam finals in the same calendar year. Rybakina has now matched that. At the Australian Open in January, she beat Sabalenka in three sets. At the US Open in September, she did it again. The rivalry has become the defining one of this era of women's tennis: Sabalenka leads the all-time head-to-head 10 wins to 8, but Rybakina leads on hard courts 8 wins to 7. Both 2026 finals were played on hard courts. Rybakina has won 10 of those 16 hard-court meetings since 2023.
Sabalenka's Season and the Hard-Court Record
Sabalenka's 2026 Grand Slam season is a study in near-misses. She won neither the Australian Open nor the US Open, and exited Roland Garros in the quarterfinals and Wimbledon before the final. Rybakina, by contrast, became only the third player since 2000 to win both hard-court majors in a single year, joining Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka (2019). She also became the first player to win the WTA Finals and the Australian Open back to back in eight years.
"You pushed me to such a limit. I was dying on the court, just trying to get all the possible balls.
"Elena Rybakina (on-court ceremony after the final)
One Slam Short of History
Rybakina now holds three of the four major titles. Wimbledon 2022. Australian Open 2026. US Open 2026. The only one missing is Roland Garros. She has never advanced past the quarterfinals in Paris. Winning there would complete a career Grand Slam, a feat accomplished by just ten players in the Open Era of women's tennis. The men's draw ended the fortnight with a different kind of history. Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 to win his second Grand Slam title, extending American men's wait for a major to 23 years. Shelton had beaten Carlos Alcaraz at 3:33 a.m. and defeated fellow American Frances Tiafoe in the semifinal to reach the final. Zverev, who won 25 of his 27 Grand Slam matches in 2026, was the better player on the day. The American chapter at this US Open ends with a semifinal and a finalist, but still without a champion. Andy Roddick's 2003 title remains the last.