Rybakina and Sabalenka Set for US Open Final Showdown
Elena Rybakina walked into Coco Gauff’s house, absorbed the noise, and walked out with the keys.
Under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, with a partisan New York crowd roaring for the defending champion and home favourite, the Kazakh ripped through the tension and Gauff’s resistance to win 3-6 6-4 6-4 and book a US Open final against Aryna Sabalenka.
A blockbuster final, and a brutal way to get there.
Rybakina flips the script on Gauff and New York
For a set, it felt like a familiar Gauff night in New York. The defending champion soaked up Rybakina’s pace, redirected it, and fed off a crowd that included former first lady Michelle Obama. Gauff weathered the early power, stayed stubborn on defence and began to draw the errors she wanted.
She broke in the sixth game, tightened her grip from the baseline and rode that surge to take the opening set 6-3. Every Gauff hold sounded like a goal at a World Cup final. Rybakina, by contrast, was playing against Gauff, the scoreboard and 23,000 people.
The response was cold and clinical.
Rybakina steadied on serve, cut out the loose swings and started to lean into her first strike tennis. Gauff’s level dipped just enough. A couple of sloppy games from the fourth seed cracked the door open and Rybakina barged through, capitalising on the errors to snatch the second set and drag the semi-final into a deciding act.
Now the rallies were being played on Rybakina’s terms. The Australian Open champion stepped inside the baseline, flattened out the groundstrokes and took time away from Gauff. The pressure mounted, and at 3-3 in the third, the weight of Rybakina’s hitting finally broke through.
She surged to a 5-3 lead with a decisive break, her power dictating every exchange. Gauff, as she has done all summer, refused to go quietly. She clawed back the break to stay alive, igniting one last roar from the stands.
But the comeback stalled. Serving to stay in the match again, Gauff faltered. Rybakina pounced, broke once more and closed it out, silencing the stadium with one last authoritative push to the finish line.
“Of course there were nerves,” she admitted on court. “Coco is a great player. It’s always tough to play her. Even if sometimes her first serve doesn’t go the second one is so heavy it’s difficult to dictate the rallies. 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.”
She fought. She showed it. And she now stands one win away from a third Grand Slam title.
For Gauff, the sting was immediate and raw. “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.”
Sabalenka smashes through Pegula to keep history in sight
If Rybakina’s win was a comeback built on resilience, Sabalenka’s was a statement of force.
The top seed overpowered Jessica Pegula 7-5 6-2, leaning on the full weight of her game to move within one victory of a rare Flushing Meadows three-peat.
Pegula, last year’s runner-up and still chasing a first major title at 32, opened with the poise of a player who knew exactly what was coming. She saved an early break point with a crisp forehand winner and initially matched Sabalenka from the back of the court. When Sabalenka’s frustration boiled over with a racket smack after a double fault in the ninth game, it felt like a window.
Pegula held for 5-5, but that was as much as she got. The defending champion reset, locked in from the baseline and broke on set point, ripping through the ball with the kind of authority that has made her the dominant force in New York.
From there, Sabalenka turned the screw.
She hammered 29 winners and seven aces, pinning Pegula back and forcing her into a stream of errors in the second set. A blistering forehand winner on break point carried her to a 3-1 lead, and Pegula’s early polish deserted her under the barrage. Sabalenka broke again on match point to finish the job, her final strike landing deep in American territory and out of reach.
“I was so desperate for the win, I wanted it badly,” she said afterwards. There was no mistaking it. Every point, every roar, every clenched fist told the same story.
“I can say that I feel confident and I feel mentally and physically really strong right now,” added Sabalenka, who even won over a crowd that had started the night firmly behind the American.
Pegula could only acknowledge the level she had run into. “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 power and nerve
So the stage is set. Rybakina, ice-cold under fire, and Sabalenka, swinging for history.
One chasing a third major. The other hunting a three-peat in New York that would stamp her dominance on this era of hard-court tennis.
They have both bulldozed their way through the draw with power, but in very different shades. Now comes the question that will decide this US Open: whose game, and whose nerve, holds firm when the lights burn brightest on Saturday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium?
