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NEW YORK — Elena Rybakina will take over the No.1 ranking come Monday no matter how she performs at this U.S. Open.
But the 27-year-old who plays for Kazakhstan has been mighty clear for all 36-odd hours she’s occupied tennis’s top spot: the number next to her name is a nice achievement.
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What she really cares about is collecting titles.
Rybakina will have a chance to win her second Grand Slam title of the year and back up that ranking coup after coming back to beat Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 Thursday in the U.S. Open semifinal.
She battled a raucous, pro-Gauff crowd and Gauff’s spectacular athleticism to seal the win. The 22-year-old American has a knack for forcing her opponents to live outside of their comfort zone for a few hours every time she plays them. Rybakina, who lost the first set, wobbled in the second set and then nearly gave up her chance for victory in the third, survived.
Her prize, along with reaching her first U.S. Open final, is the opportunity to play Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s final, the 28-year-old who is aiming for a third straight U.S. Open title, who will be hungry to prove that losing her No. 1 ranking to Rybakina does not mean losing her grip on the sport.
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It’s the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 final on the WTA Tour at a major since the 2025 French Open, when Gauff defeated Sabalenka.
For Gauff, the loss closes out a U.S. Open that demonstrates her growth over the course of a year. Thursday was her first time back in the semifinals in New York since 2023, just a year after she made the audacious decision to re-tool one of the most elemental shots in tennis on the eve of last year’s tournament.
The timing was not ideal. No tennis player would recommend trying to work on one’s game while trying to win high-stakes matches. But Gauff’s serve needed addressing, and the man who could help, Gavin Macmillan, was available. He might not have been had she waited.
Last year’s U.S. Open was a frustrating tournament for Gauff, who racked up ridiculous volumes of double faults and scrapped her way through matches. A year later, she has the perspective that bad times don’t last forever.
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She served 12 double faults in her quarterfinal win Wednesday against Mirra Andreeva. She’s learned to ride the wave.
“Definitely sitting here in a different mindset and perspective than I was last year, and I think if anything, it inspires me a little bit more to keep working, as I see how much I have improved in a year,” Gauff said.
“…I think my serve has definitely gotten better, even though my serve didn’t show up well, but it’s okay. It will show up tomorrow.”
It did, but Rybakina was just a hair better in the third set.
With Gauff serving at 2-3, Rybakina earned two break points with two gutsy, big backhands but Gauff got out of trouble with some choice serving. Gauff was fighting for holds, though, while Rybakina rolled through easy points on her serve.
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She earned herself another break point at 3-4, 30-30 when Gauff, grunting with desperate effort, couldn’t redirect a forehand and sent a shot into the doubles alley. On the next point she sent a backhand into the net and Rybakina had a chance to serve for the match, at 5-3.
Her service game wasn’t so easy this time. Gauff worked her way to 40-30 with some stellar defending, and on her first break point of the set, Rybakina shuttled a backhand into the net.
But Rybakina had battled Gauff, the rapturous atmosphere on Arthur Ashe Stadium and her own mistakes all night. The new world No. 1 wasn’t about to let all of her work fade into nothing. She hung with Gauff for one final long rally, threw up an overhead and Gauff sent it long, the title Rybakina so yearns for still within reach.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Top Sports News, Women’s Tennis
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