Aryna Sabalenka walked into Flushing Meadows chasing history. She walked out with a broken racquet, a broken streak, and a title wrestled from her by a rival who refused to blink.
Elena Rybakina, cool where Sabalenka burned, claimed the US Open crown with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory in a gripping, bruising final between the two leading forces in the women’s game. The win ends Sabalenka’s bid for a third straight title in New York and hands Rybakina the biggest hard-court prize of the year, along with a cheque worth $AU7.6 million.
This was not a procession. It was a contest of power and nerve.
Rybakina edged the first set 6-4, striking cleanly and keeping her game tight while Sabalenka’s forehand misfired too often. The Belarusian’s frustration simmered early, her body language turning sour as unforced errors crept in and Rybakina’s rhythm grew.
The second set turned into a test of will. Sabalenka, clearly annoyed with herself, started letting Rybakina – and the stadium – know it. Errors, muttering, gestures. The momentum was slipping, and everyone could see it.
Yet she refused to let go.
Sabalenka clawed her way back, digging in on return, finally finding the depth and pace that had carried her to back-to-back titles here. She wrested the second set 7-5, keeping her three‑peat hopes alive and briefly flipping the mood in Arthur Ashe Stadium. For a moment, it felt like the familiar script: Sabalenka under pressure, Sabalenka raging, Sabalenka surviving.
Rybakina tore that script up in the decider.
The Kazakh star seized control early in the third set and never loosened her grip. Her serve held firm, her groundstrokes stayed heavy and precise, and Sabalenka’s resistance began to fray. The unforced errors returned at the worst possible time; the answers she had found in the second set vanished under the weight of Rybakina’s relentless hitting.
The pressure finally told.
Serving for the championship, Rybakina stepped up and finished with authority, drilling a powerful ace down the middle on championship point. Sabalenka could only watch as the ball flashed past. Title gone. Streak gone. History postponed.
As Rybakina wheeled away towards her box, arms raised, Sabalenka’s emotions boiled over. She hurled her racquet across the court. It smashed. The image was brutal and honest: a champion furious with herself in the harshest spotlight.
Australian great Todd Woodbridge, on Nine, didn’t sugarcoat it.
“That is what Aryna Sabalenka thought about that performance. Broken, smashed,” he said. “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.”
Sabalenka picked up the wreckage of her racquet, then walked to the net and embraced Rybakina. The fury made way for respect.
On the podium, the fire gave way to something more fragile. Sabalenka fought back tears as she addressed the crowd.
“Thank you everyone for your support. It was amazing playing in a tournament with you all,” she began. “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 a title; it was a career marker. The US Open triumph becomes her third Grand Slam crown, following Wimbledon in 2022 and the Australian Open earlier this year. Only Roland Garros now sits outside her collection.
She admitted the scale of it all caught her off guard.
“It’s tough to find words right now, I didn’t expect nothing like this coming to this tournament,” she said, trophy in hand. She revealed she had been dealing with an Achilles injury, making this run all the more striking. “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.”
While Sabalenka is left to replay the what‑ifs of a night that slipped away, Rybakina leaves New York with a new chapter in her story and a growing sense of inevitability about her place at the top of the sport.
And as the women’s draw closes on a night of raw emotion and ruthless hitting, the stage now clears for Ben Shelton and Alexander Zverev to contest the men’s singles final on Monday morning AEST, under the same lights that just exposed the razor-thin margins between greatness and regret.
