Elena Rybakina Rallies Past Coco Gauff To Reach US Open Final Against Aryna Sabalenka

NEW YORK — Elena Rybakina battled back from a set down to defeat Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the U.S. Open women’s semifinals Thursday night, setting up a championship clash Saturday against defending champion Aryna Sabalenka between the top two players in women’s tennis.

The victory guarantees Rybakina will overtake Sabalenka to become the new world No. 1 when the rankings update Monday, regardless of how Saturday’s final unfolds, given she had fewer ranking points to defend heading into the tournament than the defending champion.

Gauff, the fourth-seeded American, brought her best tennis early against Rybakina at Arthur Ashe Stadium, breaking serve in the sixth game to claim the opening set 6-3 in front of a roaring crowd that included former first lady Michelle Obama. Gauff showed off an unusually strong serve throughout the early stages of the match, a notable departure from struggles with that shot earlier in her career, while her forehand gave Rybakina little room to work with during the opening set.

Rybakina steadied herself in the second set, capitalizing on some looser play from Gauff to level the match at one set apiece and quiet the Arthur Ashe crowd. In the decisive third set, Rybakina’s power began to take over, and she broke Gauff’s serve to move ahead 5-3. Gauff fought back with a brilliant backhand passing shot to earn her first break point of the final set, converting it to put the set back on serve. Rybakina responded immediately, breaking again in the 10th game to close out the match in 2 hours and 8 minutes.

The match ended somewhat anticlimactically, with Rybakina winning four consecutive points off Gauff’s serve as the American’s earlier adrenaline appeared to fade, closing out the victory when Gauff sent an overhead smash sailing long on the final point.

Rybakina, the No. 2 seed from Kazakhstan, opened 2026 by winning the Australian Open and has continued closing the gap on Sabalenka in the rankings throughout the year, aided in part by a relatively difficult summer stretch for the Belarusian. Rybakina needed only to reach the semifinals in New York to officially unseat Sabalenka, who had held the top ranking for 99 consecutive weeks heading into this year’s tournament.

Saturday’s final will mark the 18th career meeting between Rybakina and Sabalenka, with Sabalenka currently holding a 10-7 edge in their head-to-head series. The two have split recent meetings on the sport’s biggest stages, with Rybakina defeating Sabalenka in this year’s Australian Open final in January, while Sabalenka had previously beaten Rybakina in the 2023 Australian Open final. More recently, Sabalenka has gotten the better of Rybakina in matches at Indian Wells and Miami.

Sabalenka reached Saturday’s final with a comfortable 7-5, 6-2 win over No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula in the day’s first semifinal, extending her U.S. Open winning streak to 20 consecutive matches and securing her third straight appearance in the tournament’s championship match. The two-time defending champion largely matched Pegula through a tightly contested first set before pulling away decisively in the second.

Speaking after her win over Pegula, Sabalenka expressed satisfaction with how she had performed under pressure.

“No complaints,” Sabalenka said. “I’m just super happy that I was able to pull out such tennis.”

Gauff’s run to the semifinals continued a strong 2026 season for the American, who won her first Grand Slam title as a teenager after rallying past Sabalenka in the 2023 U.S. Open final. Since that breakthrough win, however, no player has managed to knock Sabalenka out of the tournament in Flushing Meadows, with both Pegula, in the 2024 final and last year’s semifinals, and now Gauff, in Thursday’s semifinal loss to Rybakina, unable to end that streak themselves.

Saturday’s championship match will pit two of the sport’s most dominant hardcourt players against one another, with the world’s top ranking already effectively decided heading into the match, even though Sabalenka will still be playing to defend the actual U.S. Open trophy she has won each of the past two years. Rybakina will be seeking her third career Grand Slam singles title, adding to her 2022 Wimbledon championship and this year’s Australian Open triumph, were she able to defeat Sabalenka a second time in a major final this season.

For Sabalenka, Saturday offers an opportunity to close out a third consecutive U.S. Open title and reassert her position at the top of the sport following Rybakina’s guaranteed rankings ascent, continuing what has become one of the most closely contested rivalries in the current era of women’s tennis. The two players have now met repeatedly on tennis’s biggest stages over the past several seasons, trading wins in Grand Slam finals and other high-profile tournaments throughout 2025 and 2026.

With Rybakina already assured of the No. 1 ranking regardless of Saturday’s outcome, the primary stakes for the final center squarely on the U.S. Open trophy itself, along with the broader psychological edge that would come with either player extending their recent dominance over the other in the sport’s most closely watched individual rivalry. Saturday’s championship match is set to close out the women’s singles competition at this year’s U.S. Open, capping a tournament that has already produced significant storylines on both the men’s and women’s sides of the draw at Flushing Meadows.