Elena Rybakina Just Did Something Only Steffi Graf Had Ever Done

Three weeks before the US Open, Elena Rybakina couldn't finish a tournament — an ankle injury pulled her out of Cincinnati. On Saturday, she beat the two-time defending champion in a three-set final and walked away with the trophy and the world's No. 1 ranking.

Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to win her first US Open title, ending Sabalenka's bid for a third straight championship at Flushing Meadows and taking the No. 1 ranking Sabalenka had held for 99 consecutive weeks.

Rybakina struggled to describe the moment during the trophy ceremony. "It's tough to find the words right now," she said, before crediting the turnaround from her injury scare. "I've been dealing a little bit with injury, but somehow everything aligned on my side."

This was Rybakina's third career Grand Slam title and her second of 2026 — she'd already beaten Sabalenka in the Australian Open final back in January. Beating the same reigning world No. 1 in two different major finals in the same calendar year had only been done once before, by Steffi Graf in 1995. Rybakina is also the first player from Kazakhstan to reach the No. 1 ranking.

Sabalenka hadn't lost a match at the US Open since falling to Coco Gauff in the 2023 final, and had won 19 consecutive matches at the tournament before Saturday. The loss ends her run at the top of the rankings and hands the tournament she'd dominated for two years to someone else.

Rybakina now heads into the rest of the season as the world's top-ranked player for the first time in her career. With the Grand Slam calendar finished for 2026, attention shifts to whether she can hold the ranking through the tour's remaining events into next season.