CHARLESTON, S.C. – – The real Aryna Sabalenka wasn’t there Saturday in tennis’ U.S. Open women’s final. She only showed up for the second set.
Otherwise, Elena Rybakina was in total control of her third Grand Slam title. The slender 6-0 Russian kept Sabalenka guessing with her consistently strong, well-placed serves and brilliant shot-making. Sabalenka couldn’t keep up, and went down to a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 loss to Rybakina.
With Sabalenka’s guesses went the Belarusian’s hopes for a third straight U.S. Open title. She charged forward even with Rybakina’s shots coming straight at her and forcing errors. Sabalenka never seemed to figure out how to handle Rybakina’s game, except in the second set that went Sabalenka’s way.
The third set was all Rybakina as she yielded only three points against her serve, while Sabalenka struggled with her own serve in long games, especially in the third and seventh games where she suffered service breaks.
Rybakina did little wrong as she moved one step closer to a career Grand Slam. She has a win everywhere now, except the French Open’s red clay. She won the grassy Wimbledon in 2022 and the hard courts of the Australian Open earlier this year.
After Saturday’s success, you might say the 25-year-old Rybakina had a great 2026 with a pair of hard court Grand Slam titles and a world’s No. 1 ranking on Monday morning.
Rybakina repeatedly hit her spot on serves and forehands and backhands that Sabalenka couldn’t get to or couldn’t handle.
It appeared to be the new face of the powerful 6-0, 28-year-old Sabalenka, who still owns four hard-court Grand Slam titles, two in New York and two in Australia.
It just wasn’t Sabalenka’s day on a day Rybakina owned.
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James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
