The Americans Are Out, and the US Open Final Is All Business

Well, we hope you enjoyed the home-team storylines while they lasted, because as of Thursday night in Flushing, they’re officially over. Aryna Sabalenka out-lasted Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2, and Jelena Rybakina dispatched Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, which means Saturday’s final is a pure top-of-the-rankings showdown — No. 1 vs. No. 2, no red-white-and-blue bunting required. It’s the first time in twenty years that an American hasn’t made the women’s final at her own Slam. Go ahead, let that sit for a second.

Sabalenka’s Stroef Start (Google Translate, Do Your Thing)

This is the same Sabalenka whose mental reset has been the real story of her US Open all fortnight, and Thursday’s semi looked like a mini-recap of that arc in a single match. She came out of the gate looking like a woman who forgot her own hype, and Pegula — appearing in her 14th career meeting with the Belarusian, still searching for career win No. 1 against her — pounced on the opening. Pegula had the better of the first set’s run of play and even carved out a break point at 4-4. She didn’t convert it. That, friends, is the entire ballgame in miniature: Pegula gets the door half-open, doesn’t walk through it, and two points later she’s serving to stay in the set at 5-6 and coughing up the whole thing.

From there it was the Sabalenka we’ve come to expect in New York — forehand doing the heavy lifting, Pegula never quite climbing back out from under it, broken twice more in the second set as the Belarusian cruised 6-2. Final tally: Sabalenka improves to 10-4 lifetime against Pegula, extends her US Open final streak to four years running, and books grand slam final No. 9 overall. Also worth noting for the “please, not again” crowd in Philadelphia: Pegula’s now lost to Sabalenka at the US Open in the semifinal and the final in back-to-back-to-back years (2024 final, 2025 semi, now this). At some point the tournament should just skip the pleasantries.

Rybakina Is Gauff’s Problem Again

Meanwhile on the other side of the draw, Rybakina — who, fun fact, had never been past the fourth round in New York before this week — needed a familiar recipe to see off Coco Gauff: drop the first set, then quietly strangle the match. She’s now beaten Gauff in two of their three meetings, and both wins have followed the exact same script, first-set loss included — she did this to Gauff in Toronto’s semifinal just last month too. Some players lose the first set and unravel. Rybakina apparently just uses it as a warm-up.

Gauff had the Kazakh generating unforced errors early with clean, aggressive baseline hitting, breaking at 2-3 in the second set to build momentum. Then the wheels came loose — Gauff got sloppier, and Rybakina, who does not need to be asked twice, made her pay. Even a late flash of defiance at 3-5 in the third couldn’t stop the bleeding; Gauff was broken again a game later, and that was that.

US Open Final Americans Shut Out — First Time Since 2006

We buried the lede a little, so let’s dig it back up: with both Pegula and Gauff eliminated, there is no American woman in this year’s US Open final — the first time that’s happened in twenty years. That’s not a small thing for a tournament that loves nothing more than a home-soil storyline to sell to a Tuesday-night ESPN slot. No shade to Sabalenka or Rybakina, who have both been the two best players on the planet all year and have more than earned this — but the Arthur Ashe crowd is going to have to find something else to chant about on Saturday.

Rybakina Takes the No. 1 Ranking, Regardless of Result

Here’s the twist nobody saw coming back when Sinner’s withdrawal reshuffled this whole draw: Rybakina becomes world No. 1 on Monday no matter what happens in the final. We flagged back then that a semifinal run alone would be enough to hand her the ranking outright — well, here we are. Sabalenka’s historic 99-week run atop the rankings — yes, ninety-nine, we double-checked — ends this weekend either way. So while Saturday’s match will decide the trophy, the ranking swap is already locked in, which adds a slightly odd “does the final even matter for that?” wrinkle to the buildup. (It does. Obviously it does. But you know somebody in your group chat is going to ask.)

The Head-to-Head, and Why This Isn’t New Territory

Sabalenka and Rybakina aren’t strangers — this will be their 18th career meeting, with Sabalenka holding a 10-7 edge. More relevantly, they’ve already met twice on the biggest stages this sport offers: Sabalenka won their 2023 Australian Open final, and Rybakina got her revenge in this year’s Melbourne final. So Saturday isn’t just No. 1 vs. No. 2 — it’s the rubber match in a rivalry that’s now split the last two Slam finals they’ve shared. If you’re looking for a reason to actually watch beyond “these are the two best players alive right now,” that’s a pretty good one.

The final goes Saturday. No Americans, no drama about seedings, just the two best hard-court players on the planet settling a score that’s now three rounds deep in Grand Slam finals alone.