Elena Rybakina dethrones Aryna Sabalenka at US Open to cement best-in-the-world status
Elena Rybakina proved herself to be the undisputed world number one after claiming her first US Open title.
The 27-year-old from Kazakhstan knew she would be top of the rankings from Monday, overtaking her opponent Aryna Sabalenka, whatever the outcome of Saturday’s final.
A defeat would have certainly taken the shine off that achievement, but instead she was crowned the new queen of Queens at Flushing Meadows after a 6-4 5-7 6-2 victory.
Two-time defending champion Sabalenka was looking to become only the third woman to achieve a New York ‘three-peat’ in the Open era, after Chris Evert and Serena Williams.
Instead she was left sat in her chair, furiously smashing her racket in to smithereens as Rybakina celebrated a third grand slam title.
“I honestly was coming here for the last 10 years and it was never successful, nothing close to that and it’s just incredible,” she said. “I’m falling in love with New York more and more. It’s amazing memories for me.”
Rybakina is an inscrutable presence on one side of the net compared to the unfiltered Sabalenka, who was clearly rattled early on and gave up the only break in the first set with a double-fault,
Yet at 5-4 on serve in the second, the top seed found one of her best shots of the tournament, a backhand at full stretch down the line to bring up two set points.
Rybakina survived that, but a bad miss at the worst time gave Sabalenka a third chance and she punished a second serve to level the match.
The momentum should have been with Sabalenka, but instead she had to ward off a break point at the start of the third before Rybakina held to love.
A stunning winning return, a Sabalenka miss and a hurled racket later, Rybakina had broken early in the third set, before another Belarussian howl of anguish as a volley flew past signalled a second, killer break for 5-2.
Serving for the title was not without its jeopardy with two double-faults – including one on championship point – but an ace clinched the crown as well as a winner’s cheque of $5.5m (£4.1m), a record pay-out at a grand slam.
A tearful Sabalenka, 28, said: “The last thing I want to do now is give a speech, but I’ll try my best.
“Obviously I’m disappointed but I want to congratulations Elena on an incredible year and an incredible result. Enjoy it.”
“I wish I could perform a little bit better, but I guess next year.”
Explaining her racket smashing at the end, she added: “It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of the grand slam and when you were trying to go for ‘three-peat’.
“So I just wanted to let it go, because if I held it inside, right now or here or there on the court, I wouldn’t be able to say a word or I would just be not really nice.”
PA
