Neither player had been broken through eight games of the deciding set on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday when Zheng Qinwen, serving at 4-4 and facing break point, put a second serve into the net. Elena Rybakina held to 15 in the next game to finish it, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, and walk into the first US Open semifinal of her career.
It took two hours and 14 minutes, and for the first of them Zheng was the more secure player. She broke Rybakina in the eighth game of the opening set to lead 5-3, then served for it and immediately lost three of the first four points. The game went to deuce and stayed there through a long run of advantages before Zheng finally closed it out. The set was hers 6-3, and it had cost her.
Rybakina’s answer was the quickest passage of the afternoon: two breaks, a 6-1 second set, 38 minutes. Zheng, who had spent the opening set making Rybakina hit an extra ball, could not get the rallies to run that long again.
The third set was the tightest of the three and the least eventful until the ninth game. Both players were landing first serves and neither faced real trouble behind their own delivery. Then came the break point at 4-4, and the double fault, and it was over.
What it does to the rankings. Rybakina arrived in New York needing only to reach the semifinals to be guaranteed the No. 1 ranking — whatever she did afterwards, and whatever Aryna Sabalenka did in the other half of the draw. The quarterfinal was the threshold. When the new list is published on Monday, Rybakina will be world No. 1 for the first time, and Sabalenka’s unbroken 99-week run at the top will end. Rybakina’s previous career high was No. 2, reached on 16 March this year after she lost the Indian Wells final to Sabalenka.
She was not inclined to dwell on it. “It’s just a number right now,” Rybakina said, adding that her goal was still to win the tournament. She also conceded the standard had not been high: “It maybe wasn’t the highest level, but I’m glad I pushed through.”
For Zheng, the defeat ends the most improbable fortnight of her season. She is ranked No. 121 and came through qualifying to reach the main draw, her ranking having collapsed after elbow surgery. She was No. 4 in the world as recently as 2024, the year she reached the Australian Open final and won Olympic gold in Paris. Here she erased a 5-0 deficit in the third set to beat Madison Keys in the third round, then climbed out of another 5-0 hole in the first set against Iga Swiatek in the fourth. The quarterfinal guarantees her a return to the top 60.
Rybakina plays Coco Gauff or Mirra Andreeva in Thursday’s semifinal. In the other half, Sabalenka — still No. 1 for five more days — meets Jessica Pegula in a rematch of the 2024 final. Pegula came from a set down to beat Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday night.
Related: Elena Rybakina profile | Zheng Qinwen profile | How the draw left the WTA No. 1 ranking open
