Howdy yโall and welcome to Tennis Insider!
By the time the U.S. Open women’s draw hit the second week, it had already done something it hadn’t done since 1975: send all four top seeds through to the semifinals. Add in the top six seeds all reaching the quarterfinals (for the first time since 1998) and you had a tournament that was, on paper, chalk. But chalk doesn’t mean boring and the way it all resolved is going to shape the WTA calendar through November.
Elena Rybakina walked into New York with a real question mark over her head. She’d been dealing with an Achilles issue that flared up at the Cincinnati Open and there was genuine uncertainty about whether she’d even be able to compete. Two and a half weeks later, she left as U.S. Open champion, a three-time major winner, and the new world No. 1 โ the first Kazakhstani player, man or woman, in any discipline, to top the rankings.
Help shape what’s next for The IX Sports! Take our short reader survey:
How she got there
Rybakina’s draw wasn’t easy, and it got harder as the tournament went on. She opened with straightforward wins over wildcard Thea Frodin and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, then needed a tiebreak to get past Yuliia Starodubtseva in the third round. The fourth round was the first real test: a 6-1, 6-4 win over 13-seed Naomi Osaka, a two-time U.S. Open champion and someone Rybakina had already needed three sets to beat in Toronto a few weeks earlier.
The quarterfinal was messier. Zheng Qinwen, who’d come through qualifying, pushed Rybakina to a first-set loss before Rybakina reset and closed it out 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Zheng’s run, where she became the first qualifier to reach a U.S. Open quarterfinal since Emma Raducanu in 2021, was one of the tournament’s better stories in its own right, and it cost her nothing in the rankings; she jumped roughly 70 spots afterward.
Then came the semifinal against Coco Gauff and this is the one that actually tested Rybakina’s nerve. Gauff came out serving better than she has in years and hit through Rybakina’s usual firepower advantage, taking the first set 6-3. Rybakina had to fight for every point after that, eventually grinding out a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win that felt less like a statement and more like survival. It was Gauff’s first U.S. Open semifinal since she won it all in 2023 and by her own admission afterward, she’d need to clean up the error count to go further next time but 42 unforced errors and 12 double faults in a match she still nearly won says everything about how contested it was.
That set up the final everyone in women’s tennis had been circling since the draw came out: Rybakina against Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion chasing a three-peat that no one had managed since Serena Williams from 2012 to 2014.
The final
Rybakina had already clinched No. 1 by reaching the semifinal, regardless of the final’s outcome because Sabalenka simply didn’t have enough points to stay ahead of her. But there’s a difference between backing into a ranking and validating it on court and Rybakina did the second thing in convincing fashion.
The match followed a familiar shape for these two. Rybakina broke once in the opening set and closed it 6-4 without playing her cleanest tennis. Sabalenka found her range in the second, breaking through for a 7-5 set that had the Ashe crowd fully in it. But the third set was all Rybakina when she broke for 2-1 and again for 5-2, sealing the title 6-2 on her twelfth ace of the match. She won 85 percent of her first-serve points on the day and committed just 24 unforced errors to Sabalenka’s 35.
“It’s tough to find words right now, honestly,” Rybakina said afterward. “Somehow everything aligned on my side.”
It was Rybakina’s second major of 2026 (after she’d already beaten Sabalenka in the Australian Open final back in January) and her third career Grand Slam title overall, adding to her 2022 Wimbledon crown. She’s now the third player since 2000 to win both hard-court majors in the same season and at 27, the second-oldest woman ever to first reach No. 1.
For Sabalenka, it closes out a rough version of a very good year. Her run at the top of the rankings (which lasted 99 weeks) is over, and she finishes the season without a major title despite reaching multiple Grand Slam finals and both of them against Rybakina. The head-to-head between the two now sits at 10-8 in Sabalenka’s favor, but Rybakina has won the two matchups that mattered most this year.
Rep The IX Sports at your next game!
Shop the logo collection or special “Womenโs Sports are Front Page News” collection now on Shopify.
What it means for the rest of 2026
This isn’t a photo finish. Rybakina now holds roughly a 1,000-point lead over Sabalenka in the Race to the WTA Finals, which is more than triple the gap that existed before the tournament started. Jessica Pegula and Gauff both moved up in the standings after their semifinal runs, while Mirra Andreeva slipped after a tight quarterfinal loss to Gauff. Rybakina, notably, became the first player to officially lock up a spot at the season-ending WTA Finals, an event that’s been relocated to Indian Wells this year after safety concerns forced it out of its planned Riyadh venue.
That doesn’t mean the fall is a formality. The tour heads into the Asian swing later this month with Singapore, then back-to-back 1000-level events in Beijing and Wuhan and there’s plenty left to sort out below the top of the rankings: whether Gauff can carry her serve improvements into the final hard-court stretch, whether Sabalenka regroups the way she has before and whether someone like Zheng Qinwen turns a breakout fortnight into a sustained run. But the No. 1 ranking and the year-end conversation both look settled in a way they haven’t in a while. Rybakina, who does have quite a bit of points to defend this fall, spent most of her career being talked about as one of the sport’s most talented ball-strikers who hadn’t quite forced her way to the top. That conversation is over now.
On to links!
This week in women’s tennis
One storyline to keep an eye on: the WTA potentially going into bankruptcy.
Taylor Townsend and Kateลina Siniakovรก won the U.S. Open women’s doubles title with a win over wildcards Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery. Not only was it a career Grand Slam for the duo, but it gave Townsend the same accolade (Siniakova previously completed it alongside Barbora Krejฤรญkovรก).
Sun Xinran won her first Grand Slam in her third final, taking the Girls’ Singles crown while Annika and Kristina Penickova won the doubles crown.
Gaby Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani were due to play the 2021 WTA Finals together before Stefani tore her ACL. Now, they’re set on playing together later this year in Indian Wells after becoming the third team to seal their berth.
As always with post-Slam coverage, check out Jon Wertheim’s Parting Shots.
Another must-read is Peter Bodo listing his beefs with this year’s U.S. Open.
Mary Carillo received her International Tennis Hall of Fame ring at the U.S. Open’s Legends Ball the other night.
Dayana Yastremska shared that her house was bombed, losing everything but a Roland Garros towel:
Not women’s tennis, but there was an incredible ATP Challenger final, the first-ever match between two out male players.
Alex Eala took on Fashion Week after her third round run at the U.S. Open, while Linda Noskovรก and Marie Bouzkovรก visited Broadway.
Former WTA CEO Larry Scott is part of the group that is assisting players for a bigger piece of the Grand Slam pie.
With the 25th anniversary of 9/11 just happening, take in this piece discussing two of the top tennis players that were taken too young in the attacks.
IBM used limb tracking for the first time as part of their AI-powered “serve quality” metrics.
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the womenโs sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of womenโs sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
Tweet of the week
Loved these two interactions Elena Rybakina on opposite ends of the spectrum:
Five at The IX: U.S. Open week 2
Q. If you go back a year, you weren’t doing so well, and then you’ve been on this incredible run to rise up the rankings, win the Tour Finals, win the Australian Open, become No. 1, now win the US Open. Was there something that happened a year ago that sort of changed you and launched you on this journey that you can think about? Any changes you made? Did you think it was possible?
ELENA RYBAKINA: Yeah, of course, I always believed that it’s possible. We’ve been having great results. Of course, not every year is the same. I won Wimbledon in 2022. Then I wasn’t winning the slams, but I played final of Australian Open the next year. I think we were always there.
Of course, on your path you learn a lot, a lot of things happening. I feel like now I have a great team, great people around me, and we just continue the work. It finally paid off, and I’m super happy, very proud.
It’s never easy. Even now I finish here, I rest, I celebrate, and then still the tournaments are coming up. You still need to play. You still need to compete with the same players, and you still need to do your best.
Yeah, it’s an amazing journey, and hopefully I can continue stay at the top as long as possible.
Q. Just what does this accomplishment mean to you as compared to other times that you’ve won the US Open? Does this feel any different having won this tournament before today?
YUI KAMIJI: Yes, as I speak on the court, this year is 50-years anniversary for wheelchair tennis. Early this week I could see many of legends players, including Japanese Shingo Kunieda. It was really nice to meet them and talk with them.
I already knew it, but facing to them, more โ I don’t know how to say in English, but I more appreciate feeling more and more them before than I thought. Also, I wanted to speak about that on the court.
This is another reason why I wanted to win, so yeah, I’m really honored to speak about that.
Q. Taylor, every slam win is special, but for this to be your first US Open, to complete the calendar year slam at your home slam with all that the US Open has meant to you and has been significant to you over the course of your career, just how does this experience feel different perhaps than the other three?
TAYLOR TOWNSEND: Yeah, it’s very different. The US Open is something that I’ve been coming to as a kid. Like, I did the Hit the Targets thing for Arthur Ashe Day when I was young. So I’ve came to this tournament, I remember taking the 7 subway and walking through the park, and I’m, like, Oh, my God, I want to play here one day.
It’s very special for me, also because of all the things that I’ve gone through over the course of my career. There was a lot of significant stuff that happened that revolved around the US Open.
I remember as a junior being World No. 1 where I didn’t have any support, I didn’t have any funding, and I had to do a fundraiser on my own to try and find a way to get here. I wasn’t in 100% health, and I said, I’m going to come, and I’m going to do what I can.
I ended up, you know, winning the doubles that year, which was so special, in 2012. So then to be able to come here and win as an adult, you know, and be able to play on Arthur Ashe and to hold this trophy, it’s something that’s so special to me, because I don’t forget the things that I’ve gone through. You know, I’m very intentional with the things and the words that I say, which is why I said, like, if flipping a script had a face, like, you’d see me (smiling).
I’ve been through so much, and it just means the world to me. I wanted this really badly, and I knew that I wanted it. I felt it in my body and my spirit, because I was so nervous. I haven’t been nervous the whole tournament, and then I went out, and I was just, like, I can’t play.
I knew that I wanted it, but I knew that I had to relax and allow things to flow and flourish. When I was able to do that, and credit to Kat, she played amazing and helped me through that moment, then we were flowing, and the scoreline showed that.
This really means everything to me. Not only just to be able to win the US Open, but to be able to complete a career slam. And I think I’m the first mother to be able to complete a career slam, which I think is amazing.
I’ve talked about this before where I said that I wanted to create a legacy for myself, and I’ve been saying that since I was โ that was something I journaled at 8 years old. I didn’t know what that looked like, and I didn’t know what that meant, and I definitely didn’t think that was going to be me being a mom, but I’m creating history and creating a different path and showing people that it’s possible. I’m just so honored to be able to do that.
Q. Bad luck. It’s obviously been a tough summer, and you’ve done incredibly well to perform as you have done to reach the final. Do you take anything from that, from the way you bounced back and put yourself back in the final?
ARYNA SABALENKA: No, I think overall I should be happy with the level I played, and there’s lots of things to take from this tournament. I mean, as experience shows, that I only come back stronger and all of these lessons this season definitely already made me stronger, but definitely going to motivate me for the next year to do better job.
Q. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the American expression “third time’s the charm,” but today certainly was for you. I know you said you didn’t put a lot of pressure on yourself, but now that you’ve done it, can you talk about the feeling of finally breaking through here?
SUN XINRAN: Yeah, it was really big pressure, because you know I have been final third time, and I lost first two time, but I think it’s really so big experience.
Too I prepare for the third time, and first I want to sleep well, because last two time I was so nervous, so this time I want to just focus more on my tactic and don’t think about the result, so I think this is really important for me.
Your business can reach women’s sports fans who share your passion!
Here at The IX Sports, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, you should reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com to discuss ways to work together in 2026.
Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Womenโs Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
