Elena Rybakina Defeats Aryna Sabalenka in US Open Final
Aryna Sabalenka’s bid for a US Open three‑peat ended not with a roar, but with the crack of a broken racquet.
On a heavy night at Flushing Meadows, Elena Rybakina outlasted the two-time defending champion 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in a final that swung wildly before the Kazakh’s power and composure settled it. The win delivers Rybakina her third grand slam title and underlines a shift at the very top of the women’s game.
The last word came from Rybakina’s racquet: a clean, unreturnable ace down the middle on championship point. Sabalenka barely moved. The world No. 1 watched the ball flash past, watched Rybakina sink into celebration, and watched her own chance at history disappear with it — along with the $AU7.6 million winner’s cheque.
Only then did the frustration that had been simmering for two sets finally spill over. As Rybakina turned to her box, arms raised, Sabalenka hurled her racquet across the court. It skidded, bounced, and snapped. A brutal, honest verdict on her own night.
“That is what Aryna Sabalenka thought about that performance. Broken, smashed,” Australian great Todd Woodbridge said on Nine. “That is something that she clearly still hasn’t got control of, the emotions in the big matches. It is never easy losing, there is no doubt about that.
“But she let her opponent know in the second set that she was feeling the heat. Great champions don’t really carry themselves like that.”
The pressure had been building long before the racquet left her hand.
From the start, Rybakina looked determined to rip the title away from Sabalenka rather than wait for it to be surrendered. She attacked early, took the ball on the rise, and pinned Sabalenka behind the baseline. The first set went 6-4 to Rybakina, the challenger landing the heavier blows in the key moments while Sabalenka’s unforced errors crept up.
Sabalenka’s body language told its own story. After dropping the opener, she gestured in frustration, glaring at her strings, at her box, at the far end of the court where Rybakina stood unflinching. The errors kept coming, and her responses grew slower, her attempts to blunt Rybakina’s momentum increasingly rushed and ragged.
Yet champions rarely go quietly. Sabalenka clawed her way back into the contest in the second set, even as her game stuttered. She found just enough first serves, just enough depth, to drag Rybakina into longer exchanges. The tension ratcheted up with every point.
This time, it was Rybakina who blinked. Sabalenka stole the second set 7-5, a defiant act of survival that kept her title defence alive and briefly flipped the mood inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. The crowd sensed a familiar script: Sabalenka under pressure, Sabalenka angry, Sabalenka somehow finding a way.
The comeback never fully arrived.
Rybakina reset instantly at the start of the decider. She tightened the screws on return, forced Sabalenka into yet more rushed swings, and seized control of the rallies. The third set became a statement: 6-2, Rybakina in command, the match played almost entirely on her terms.
Sabalenka, who had signalled her irritation so clearly after the second set, could not find a final surge. The unforced errors that had dogged her all evening refused to leave. Rybakina, sensing the finish line, only grew bolder.
When the last ace landed, Rybakina dropped her shoulders in relief, then turned to her team in disbelief. Only after the racquet smash did Sabalenka walk to the net, pick up the broken frame, and embrace the new champion.
On the podium, Sabalenka tried to hold herself together. The emotion that had boiled over on court now showed in a different way.
“Thank you everyone for your support. It was amazing playing in a tournament with you all,” she began, voice tight as she delivered her runners-up speech. “I am disappointed but I want to congratulate Elena on a great year. I wish I could’ve performed a little bit better, but I guess there’s next year.”
For Rybakina, this was not just another trophy. It was confirmation that her game travels, that her power can own the sport’s biggest stages in different conditions, on different continents, against the very best.
The US Open crown joins her Australian Open title from earlier this year and the Wimbledon breakthrough of 2022. Three majors now sit on her resume. Only Roland Garros, the French Open, remains unconquered.
“It’s tough to find words right now, I didn’t expect nothing like this coming to this tournament,” she said as she cradled the trophy. She spoke openly of battling an Achilles issue coming in, of a campaign that had seemed unlikely to end with silverware. “I was dealing with (an Achilles) injury, but everything aligned together on my side. Aryna you’re a great champion, you push me to such limits.
“It’s just incredible, I’m falling in love with New York more and more. This atmosphere is just unbelievable and doesn’t feel real right now.”
The night belonged to her — to the precision of that final ace, to the poise under fire, to the way she absorbed Sabalenka’s power and sent it back with interest.
Sabalenka leaves New York without the history she chased, but with a clear mirror held up to her game and her temperament on the sport’s harshest stage. Rybakina leaves with a third major, the New York crowd at her back, and one glaring question hanging over the rest of the tour: if this is what she can do on one good leg, what happens when she’s fully fit?
