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Arnya Sabalenka

Rybakina Ends Sabalenka’s 99-Week Reign at No. 1 With US Open Triumph

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Well, here we go again. Jelena Rybakina walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium, looked across the net at Aryna Sabalenka, and did the thing she’s apparently contractually obligated to do in 2026: win. 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, and just like that, Rybakina has her third Grand Slam title — and her second at Sabalenka’s expense in a single season.

Because let’s rewind for a second: this wasn’t a one-off. Rybakina also beat Sabalenka in the Australian Open final back in January. Sabalenka, for her part, got her revenge in Indian Wells and Miami — so the two have been trading haymakers all year like it’s some kind of extended, extremely expensive rivalry podcast. But when the lights are brightest and the trophy’s on the line? Rybakina’s the one lifting it.

Jelena Rybakina crouches in visor and yellow top, resting on her racket after winning the US Open final against Aryna Sabalenka. rybakina ends sabalenka 99-week reign

The stat that actually matters here

Forget the head-to-head for a second (Sabalenka still leads 10-7 overall, for what that’s worth — not much, apparently, when it counts). The number that really stings for Sabalenka: 99 weeks. That’s how long she’d been parked at world No. 1 before Sunday night. Rybakina didn’t just win a tournament — she ended an era. New US Open champion, new world No. 1, same building.

Sabalenka, meanwhile, is stuck on a stat line that’s starting to feel a little cursed: nine Grand Slam finals, four titles. She’s collecting runner-up trophies at a pace that would make even the most patient tennis fan wince on her behalf.

First set: Rybakina reads her like a book

The opening set was basically a returning clinic. Rybakina’s first serve betrayed her early — a rough 27% landed in — but it didn’t matter, because she was busy dismantling Sabalenka’s service games instead. Three break points survived at 1-1 (barely), a break conceded at 2-2, and a near-disaster at 2-4 that Sabalenka just barely wriggled out of. Set one, Rybakina, 6-4. Textbook.

Second set: Sabalenka finds her fight (briefly)

Give Sabalenka this much — she didn’t fold. Rybakina had her cornered at 4-5, 15-40, staring down set point, and then… two wild, full-blooded winners from Sabalenka later, the danger had evaporated. Two games after that, the Belarusian finally cashed in her break and levelled things up, 7-5. For about twenty minutes, it looked like we were heading somewhere unpredictable.

We were not.

Third set: business as usual

Rybakina shook off whatever mild irritation she was carrying, broke Sabalenka right out of the gate at 1-1 off the back of some genuinely gorgeous returns, and then twisted the knife again at 4-2 while Sabalenka’s frustration became increasingly visible to anyone watching. From there it was a formality — Rybakina served it out and slammed the door shut with an ace on match point. Curtain.

What it means going forward

Three majors now for Rybakina — Wimbledon (2022) and, in the space of eight months, both hard-court Slams of 2026. She’s not just back at the top; she’s actively rewriting how this rivalry with Sabalenka gets talked about. And Sabalenka? She’s got a genuinely brutal question to sit with this offseason: how do you keep reaching finals and keep running into the exact same wall?

Sabalenka’s Mental Reset: Can It Power a US Open Three-Peat?

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The Aryna Sabalenka mental reset has become the real story of her US Open campaign — not her ranking, not her draw, but whether the work she keeps referencing in press conferences actually holds up over two weeks. She walked into Flushing Meadows this year carrying something she hasn’t had to deal with much in recent seasons: real doubt. Not from her opponents. From everywhere else.

Aryna Sabalenka hits a backhand in orange dress at 2026 US Open

A Season That Nearly Got Away From Her

The year started about as well as a season can start. Sabalenka reached the Australian Open final, then ran off back-to-back hard-court titles at Indian Wells and Miami to complete the Sunshine Double — a feat only four other women in history have managed. At that point, a third consecutive US Open title looked less like a question and more like a formality.

Then it fell apart, fast. A quarterfinal exit at the French Open. A fourth-round loss to Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon, after which Sabalenka’s public comments veered from frustrated to something closer to despondent — at one point saying she wanted to “quit tennis right now” and, in a separate moment, admitting she just wanted to “go, get completely drunk, forget about tennis, and try to get in better shape.” Then came the North American hard-court swing that was supposed to be her reset: a fourth-round exit in Toronto to Ekaterina Alexandrova, followed by an even more alarming collapse in Cincinnati, where she blew a 5-1 first-set tiebreak lead and a 4-1 second-set lead to lose to 20-year-old Sara Bejlek, a player ranked well outside the top 50.

By the time the tour reporters started asking whether the world No. 1 had “mentally checked out,” it wasn’t an unreasonable question. It was the obvious one.

“Maybe There’s Something Wrong With People”

What’s been most striking about Sabalenka’s response to all of this isn’t panic — it’s defiance, delivered with the same edge that’s defined her career. Asked directly what was wrong with her game heading into New York, she didn’t offer an explanation. She offered a redirection: “Maybe there’s something wrong with people.” Pressed on the black mesh outfit drawing commentary on social media, her answer was similarly unbothered: “Who cares about people, right? All that matters for me is that I love it.”

But beneath the bravado, she’s been unusually candid about the actual work. “It wasn’t the best period. I don’t want to defend myself, but obviously I just don’t want to talk about that period. I’ve been dealing with several things,” she said. “But who cares, right? I didn’t perform my best. These tough lessons are definitely going to make me way, way stronger and working even harder. I work on my mental side of the game.”

That’s the throughline worth watching this fortnight — not just whether Sabalenka wins matches, but whether the mental-side work she keeps referencing actually shows up when it matters.

The Sabalenka Mental Reset Begins in New York

So far, the early signs are good, even if they came with some familiar wobbles. Sabalenka opened her title defense with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Camila Osorio — her 24th consecutive Grand Slam first-round win, a streak dating back five years — but it wasn’t clean. She dropped the opening game, then let a comfortable second-set lead slip as Osorio clawed back to 4-4 before Sabalenka closed it out. It’s a pattern that’s shown up all year: real quality mixed with lapses in concentration at exactly the moments a top seed usually shuts the door.

Round two brings Polina Iatcenko, a 22-year-old qualifier playing just her second tour-level main draw, who needed three hours and twenty-seven minutes and four match points saved to get past Renata Zarazua in the first round. On paper it’s a match Sabalenka should win comfortably. The more relevant question, given everything that’s preceded it, is whether she can win it without the kind of mid-match wavering that’s derailed her against lower-ranked players all season.

The Blueprint That Already Worked Once

There’s real precedent here for a Sabalenka turnaround built specifically on mental recalibration, which is part of why this year’s version of the story carries some credibility. After losing the 2025 Australian Open and French Open finals, she described a genuine crisis point: “After the Australian Open, I thought that the right way would be just to forget it and move on, but then the same thing happened at the French Open. So after the French Open I figured that, ‘Okay, maybe it’s time for me to sit back and to look at those finals and to maybe learn something.'” A holiday reading the neurosurgeon James Doty’s self-help memoir Into the Magic Shop became, in her telling, a turning point — and she went on to beat Amanda Anisimova in that year’s US Open final for her second straight title in New York, crediting the “controlled” approach directly.

This year’s version of the story is messier — a full season of instability rather than two finals losses — but the mechanism she’s describing is the same: setbacks treated as material to work with rather than results to bury.

What’s at Stake Beyond the Trophy

There’s real pressure underneath all of this beyond the three-peat bid itself. Sabalenka’s grip on the world No. 1 ranking has loosened through the year’s inconsistency, with Elena Rybakina in position to overtake her depending on how deep both run in New York. A third straight US Open title would make Sabalenka the first woman to three-peat at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams’s run from 2012 to 2014 — a genuinely historic marker that would go a long way toward settling the “mentally checked out” question for good.

For now, the story remains open. Sabalenka has given herself the matches to write a redemption arc identical in shape to last year’s — rock bottom, a mental reset, a trophy. Whether the next two weeks confirm that arc or complicate it further is, at this point, the most interesting subplot of the women’s draw.

Who do you think is more likely to hold the No. 1 ranking by the final — Sabalenka or Rybakina?

National Bank Open Toronto 2026 Draw Analysis: Sabalenka Headlines a Wide-Open Field

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The National Bank Open Toronto 2026 draw is out, and for the first time since the tournament’s city-swap format began, the WTA’s flagship Canadian stop finds Aryna Sabalenka installed as the No. 1 seed on Sobeys Stadium hard courts. Running August 1–13, the 96-player field is missing several of its biggest recent storylines through injury withdrawal, which cracks the bracket open in more than one direction ahead of the US Open.

National Bank Open Toronto 2026 draw analysis: Sabalenka leads a stacked field as Mboko, Muchova, Paolini and Raducanu all withdraw.

The Contenders

Sabalenka tops the seeding list, with Elena Rybakina right behind her at No. 2 — and intriguingly, Rybakina can only overtake Sabalenka for the world No. 1 ranking if she wins the title outright while Sabalenka fails to reach the quarterfinals. That subplot alone gives the top of the draw extra weight this fortnight.

Behind them, the seeding runs deep: Jessica Pegula (3), Coco Gauff (4), Mirra Andreeva (5), Linda Noskova (6), Iga Swiatek (7) and Amanda Anisimova (8) round out the top eight, meaning every genuine title threat on tour is in Toronto this year.

Who’s Out

The absentee list is where this draw gets its edge. Defending champion Victoria Mboko will not defend her title, sidelined by an MCL injury — a tough blow for the hometown crowd given the run she produced in Montreal last year. Karolina Muchova is also missing after a minor surgery, and Jasmine Paolini withdrew from the event as part of a wider break covering two WTA stops. Emma Raducanu was on the original entry list but has since scratched as well. Mboko’s spot opened a direct route into the main draw for Mexico’s Renata Zarazua.

A trio of retirements has already thinned the field further once play got underway: Elisabetta Cocciaretto (left thigh), Polina Kudermetova (right knee) and Eva Lys (back) have all had to stop mid-match.

Who’s In

Beyond the top seeds, the entry list is stacked with proven Toronto/Montreal winners and rising names alike. Two-time champion Jessica Pegula and past titlists Elina Svitolina and Belinda Bencic are all back, while 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu returns on a wild card in front of the Canadian crowd. Venus Williams also takes a wild card into the main draw. Home favorites Ariana Arseneault, Cadence Brace, Katherine Sebov, Carol Zhao, Rebecca Marino and Kayla Cross round out the Canadian contingent, alongside seeded Canadian Leylah Fernandez (No. 30).

The next generation is well represented too: 16-year-old Iva Jovic (seeded 13), Alexandra Eala (seeded 25) and Linda Noskova (seeded 6) are all being talked about as potential deep-run threats, alongside Naomi Osaka (11) and Sorana Cirstea (14) as proven floaters capable of upsetting a seed.

National Bank Open Toronto 2026 Draw: Quarter-by-Quarter Breakdown

With seeds locked and the bracket split evenly, here’s how the draw shapes up heading into the second week:

  • Sabalenka’s quarter: No. 1 seed Sabalenka shares this section with Jelena Ostapenko (26), Maja Chwalinska (18) and Ekaterina Alexandrova (16), plus Elina Svitolina (9) as the most dangerous floater. Ostapenko’s power game is the obvious late-round banana peel here.
  • Swiatek’s quarter: Jessica Pegula (3) is the top seed on paper, but Iga Swiatek (7) lurks as the No. 4 seed in this section along with Katerina Siniakova (32), Anna Kalinskaya (17), Diana Shnaider (15), Marta Kostyuk (10) and Madison Keys (19) — arguably the most loaded quarter in the draw.
  • Gauff’s quarter: Coco Gauff (4) headlines a section that also features Linda Noskova (6), Alexandra Eala (25), Belinda Bencic (12), Iva Jovic (13) and Maria Sakkari (29). A Gauff–Noskova quarterfinal would be one of the more anticipated matches of the fortnight.
  • Rybakina’s quarter: No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina anchors the bottom of the draw alongside Mirra Andreeva (5), Leylah Fernandez (30), Naomi Osaka (11), Sorana Cirstea (14) and Barbora Krejcikova (22) — plenty of firepower for a potential Rybakina–Andreeva semifinal.

If the seeds hold, that sets up a Sabalenka–Swiatek top-half and a Gauff–Rybakina bottom-half split for the semifinals. But between the withdrawals, the young guns and a stacked bottom half, the National Bank Open Toronto 2026 draw has the look of a bracket built for upsets rather than chalk.

The next generation is well represented too: 16-year-old Iva Jovic (seeded 13), Alexandra Eala (seeded 25) and Linda Noskova (seeded 6) are all being talked about as potential deep-run threats, alongside Naomi Osaka (11) and Sorana Cirstea (14) as proven floaters capable of upsetting a seed.

Quarter-by-Quarter Breakdown

With seeds locked and the bracket split evenly, here’s how the draw shapes up heading into the second week:

  • Sabalenka’s quarter: No. 1 seed Sabalenka shares this section with Jelena Ostapenko (26), Maja Chwalinska (18) and Ekaterina Alexandrova (16), plus Elina Svitolina (9) as the most dangerous floater. Ostapenko’s power game is the obvious late-round banana peel here.
  • Swiatek’s quarter: Jessica Pegula (3) is the top seed on paper, but Iga Swiatek (7) lurks as the No. 4 seed in this section along with Katerina Siniakova (32), Anna Kalinskaya (17), Diana Shnaider (15), Marta Kostyuk (10) and Madison Keys (19) — arguably the most loaded quarter in the draw.
  • Gauff’s quarter: Coco Gauff (4) headlines a section that also features Linda Noskova (6), Alexandra Eala (25), Belinda Bencic (12), Iva Jovic (13) and Maria Sakkari (29). A Gauff–Noskova quarterfinal would be one of the more anticipated matches of the fortnight.
  • Rybakina’s quarter: No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina anchors the bottom of the draw alongside Mirra Andreeva (5), Leylah Fernandez (30), Naomi Osaka (11), Sorana Cirstea (14) and Barbora Krejcikova (22) — plenty of firepower for a potential Rybakina–Andreeva semifinal.

If the seeds hold, that sets up a Sabalenka–Swiatek top-half and a Gauff–Rybakina bottom-half split for the semifinals — though with this many dangerous unseeded and lower-seeded names scattered through the bracket, Toronto has the look of a draw built for upsets.

The official tournament site can be found at nationalbankopen.com

Aryna Sabalenka Is First Player To Clinch WTA Finals Riyadh Spot

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The WTA announced that Aryna Sabalenka has become the first player to qualify for the 2025 WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF following an outstanding first half of the season.

The 27-year-old has been the stand-out player on the Hologic WTA Tour this year having won three titles from seven finals, winning over 45 matches and amassing over 6,500 points on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard.

Sabalenka’s incredible campaign has seen her crowned champion at WTA 1000 events at the Miami Open presented by Itaú and the Mutua Madrid Open, in addition to triumphing at the WTA 500 Brisbane International presented by Evie. She also reached the final at the WTA 1000 BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells), WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart), the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, and secured her place in Riyadh by winning her quarterfinal match at Wimbledon earlier today.

“It’s my goal every year to qualify for the WTA Finals and being the first player to do so this season is such a special moment for me and my team,” said Sabalenka. “Competing in Riyadh was such a great experience and I can’t wait to return in November and battle to lift the Billie Jean King Trophy.”

Sabalenka will be appearing at the WTA Finals for the fifth consecutive year when she steps out on court at the King Saud University Indoor Arena this November, with her best result at the WTA Finals coming in 2022 when she finished as runner-up, in addition to two semifinal appearances in 2023 and 2024.

Last year the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF broke new ground as the first major women’s sporting event to be held in Saudi Arabia, which saw singles champion Coco Gauff take home a record $4.8 million, the highest-ever prize money purse awarded in women’s sport. This formed part of a wider $15.25 million in total prize money distributed amongst the best eight singles players and doubles teams in the world.

The event demonstrated the growing global appeal of tennis, with a cumulative broadcast audience of 77.9 million, a 160% Year on Year increase, and $1.2 billion in total earned media value generated by press coverage.

Off-court, the WTA worked closely with the Saudi Tennis Federation by delivering programs for upcoming tennis players, community and grassroot tennis sessions and workforce training.

WTA Finals Tournament Director Garbiñe Muguruza said: “Congratulations to Aryna on her qualification, especially so early in the year. She is an incredible player enjoying great form and I am sure she will be determined to carry that forward to Riyadh. Personally, I’m really excited to go back to Saudi Arabia in 2025. We delivered a world-class event in 2024 where the top players in the world could shine, with wonderful facilities, support and hospitality. We were very proud of the event and look forward to continue to showcase our players on the ultimate stage.”

WTA CEO Portia Archer added: “Aryna’s winning mindset, spirited personality and star quality shine through every time she steps on court attracting fans and interest far beyond the tennis court. We are fortunate to have such inspiring athletes to support and grow the game of tennis around the globe, especially in new regions. We had a very positive start to our tenure in Saudi Arabia last year and I look forward to 2025 as we continue our ambitions to grow the game and engage more deeply with new fans as well as our partners at the Saudi Tennis Federation. This year we want to reach and inspire even more people to experience tennis for themselves and enjoy the benefits of a healthy and active lifestyle.”

The 2025 WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF takes place from November 1-8, 2025 and features the top 8 singles players and doubles teams on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard (with the 8th spot going to the singles player and doubles team that have won a Grand Slam if ranked No.8 to No.20). Players and teams compete in a round-robin format with the singles champion lifting the WTA Finals Billie Jean King Trophy and the doubles champions earning the WTA Finals Martina Navratilova Trophy.