The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka will fight for her third consecutive US Open crown against her fiercest rival, the Kazakh Elena Rybakinawho has just unseated her from world number one. Sabalenka reached her fourth straight final this Thursday against American Jessica Pegula while Rybakina came back from a set down against local Coco Gauff.
“It’s a final and I feel like it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. You just want to win and do your best,” Rybakina said of Saturday’s final duel.
With Sabalenka “we motivate each other when we play these games,” he said. “It’s great to play against someone who pushes you to the limit.”
The two have already faced each other 17 times, with 10 wins for Sabalenka. Rybakina won the first Grand Slam final of the year at the Australian Open and on Wednesday ended Sabalenka’s nearly two-year rule in the world rankings.
All in all, Flushing Meadows is a Belarusian fortress. On these fast courts she is unbeaten in her last 20 games and can now seal the first three consecutive championships since Serena Williams between 2012 and 2014.
Maintaining the lead “was one of my goals, but right now there’s not much I can do. I didn’t perform very well in the middle of the season,” Sabalenka told reporters.
“Elena took advantage of the moment, played really well and took number one,” he said. “I can only focus on myself and try to do my best now to keep the fight close and maybe get it back one day.”
“Nothing to do”
This Thursday Sabalenka only needed one hour and 20 minutes to beat Pegula 7-5 and 6-2, whom she had already defeated in the 2024 final and in last year’s semifinals in New York.
“In the last match I played against Jessica it was almost impossible for me to win,” the winner recalled. “I’m super happy to have been able to show this level of tennis.”
Unlike last year, when she took the lead with the first set, Pegula could not this time stop Sabalenka’s firepower, who did not grant her a single break.
“His level was probably the highest I’ve ever seen him,” Pegula resigned.
“Honestly, I’m not that upset, I don’t think there was much I could have done today,” said the New Yorker, who at 32 years old has still not won her long-awaited first major title.
Gauff gives in to Rybakina
Celebrities such as former first lady Michelle Obama and former Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo came to enjoy the women’s semifinals, the first cups for the top four seeds since 1975.
The emotions were broken by the second duel, in which Rybakina debuted as the new leader of the circuit with a formidable comeback against Gauff by 3-6, 6-4 and 6-4.
The Kazakh recovered from a weak start and resisted the suffocating atmosphere of the center court in favor of her protégé Gauff, who was looking for a second title after the one in 2023.
“I know they wanted Coco to win and it was a real battle,” Rybakina told the audience. “I stayed positive and told myself I had to fight and play my best tennis and somehow I won the match.”
Gauff overwhelmed Rybakina in the first set with her athletic ability and an accurate serve, with which she hit four aces.
With her only break, Gauff went ahead 4-2 and tied the first set against a Rybakina who left frustrated to the locker room.
But the Kazakh already had the formula to overcome Gauff, after her August triumph in the Toronto semifinals, and she got back on track with the help of the local, who gave her the second set with a double fault.
Outplayed, Gauff appealed to her combative spirit to reengage at the last moment but Rybakina scored her with a definitive break.
The men’s semifinals will be played on Friday with a clash between the Americans Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe and another between the German Alexander Zverev, first seed, and the Russian Karen Khachanov.
