Rybakina and Sabalenka Set for Epic US Open Final Showdown
Elena Rybakina walked into Coco Gauff’s house, stared down the noise of Arthur Ashe Stadium and walked out with a place in the US Open final – and a date with the one woman who has turned New York into her personal territory.
Aryna Sabalenka is back in the championship match as well, still on track for a remarkable Flushing Meadows three‑peat after overpowering Jessica Pegula. Two of the game’s biggest hitters, two Grand Slam champions, now stand one win away from reshaping the balance of power in the women’s game.
Rybakina drowns out Gauff and Ashe
For a set, this was Coco Gauff’s night. The defending champion fed off the New York energy, the roars rolling down from the stands – a crowd that even included former first lady Michelle Obama – and absorbed everything Rybakina threw at her.
Gauff defended with steel, turned defence into attack, and kept dragging errors from the Kazakh’s racket. She broke in the sixth game, locked in from the baseline, and rode that surge to pocket the opening set 6-3. Every fist pump, every “Come on!”, felt like a warning: the queen of Queens wasn’t giving up her throne easily.
Rybakina felt it. She admitted it.
“Of course there were nerves,” she said on court. “Coco is a great player. It’s always tough to play her… I took a deep breath, tried to talk positive with myself and just told myself I need to fight and try to show good tennis.”
The fight arrived in the second set. Rybakina stopped flinching and started swinging. Gauff, by contrast, blinked. A loose patch from the fourth seed – a few short balls, a couple of rushed errors – cracked the door open, and Rybakina barged through to level the match, 6-4, with heavier, cleaner hitting.
Once she found her range, the Australian Open champion began to dictate. The forehand bit harder, the backhand flattened out, and Gauff suddenly found herself reacting rather than directing. At 3-3 in the decider, the rallies turned brutal. Rybakina stepped in, broke to lead 5-3 and, for the first time all night, the stadium fell almost quiet.
Gauff, though, refused to go quietly. She broke straight back, dragging the match into one last corner, one last test of nerve. The noise returned. So did Rybakina’s resolve.
Serving to stay in it, Gauff couldn’t hold the line. Rybakina pounced again, broke for 6-4, and with it sealed a 3-6 6-4 6-4 comeback that felt as much mental as it was physical. A third Grand Slam title is now just one match away.
For Gauff, the emotions hit hard.
“Right now, it sucks,” she said. “My dad said ‘you accomplished so many great things this summer’. I was like I don’t care about the summer. So right now that’s where my head is at.”
New York loved her again. This time, it couldn’t carry her over the line.
Sabalenka’s power play crushes Pegula
Earlier in the night, Sabalenka had already laid down a marker. Top seed, defending champion, and playing with the edge of someone “desperate for the win”, she simply hit through Pegula 7-5 6-2.
“I was so desperate for the win, I wanted it badly,” she admitted. It showed in every swing.
Pegula, the 2024 runner-up and still chasing a first major, opened with almost flawless tennis. She saved an early break point with a crisp forehand winner and looked composed, smart, in control of the patterns. Across the net, Sabalenka simmered. A double fault in the ninth game drew a furious racket smash into the court – the kind of moment that can send her either spiralling or surging.
This time, it lit the fuse.
Pegula held for 5-4, but Sabalenka began to lean into her power, hammering returns and stepping inside the baseline. On set point, the Belarusian finally broke from the back of the court, ripping through Pegula’s defence and snatching the opener 7-5. The mood changed instantly. So did the match.
With the first set in hand, Sabalenka loosened the shoulders and let fly. The serve clicked, the forehand exploded, and the winners started to pile up – 29 of them by the end, backed by seven aces. Pegula’s early precision deserted her under the barrage, the errors creeping in as Sabalenka’s weight of shot pushed her deeper and deeper behind the baseline.
The top seed struck again early in the second, breaking for 3-1 with a ferocious forehand winner on break point. Pegula, 32 and still searching for that breakthrough fortnight, kept fighting but could not reclaim the rhythm that had given her a foothold. Sabalenka broke once more on match point, closing with an unreturnable drive that buried itself deep in American territory.
“I can say that I feel confident and I feel mentally and physically really strong right now,” Sabalenka said after earning the respect of a partisan Arthur Ashe crowd.
Pegula could only nod to the level she had faced.
“I don’t know who p****d her off today – hopefully it wasn’t me totally, but it might have been – I don’t know. She played insane. She played a super-high level. Honestly, I don’t really know if there was much I could do today.”
A final built on firepower
So it comes down to this: Rybakina, the quiet destroyer who just muted Coco Gauff and a roaring Ashe, against Sabalenka, the force of nature chasing history in New York.
One is on course for a third major. The other is one win away from three straight US Open titles.
On Saturday, something has to give.
