The US Open women’s final is the top seed against the second, and a rematch of the Australian Open final. Two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka plays Elena Rybakina on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday at 4 p.m. Eastern. A win would make Sabalenka the first woman since Serena Williams, champion from 2012 to 2014, to take three US Open titles in a row. Rybakina, who beat her in Melbourne in January, replaces her as world No. 1 on Monday whatever the result.
The final
- Saturday, 12 September, 4 p.m. ET — [1] Aryna Sabalenka vs [2] Elena Rybakina, Arthur Ashe Stadium
In the United States the women’s final is on ESPN, with Spanish-language coverage on ESPN Deportes and streaming through the ESPN app. It is not on ABC, which carries Sunday’s men’s final. In the United Kingdom and Ireland the tournament is on Sky Sports and NOW, and the tournament’s official site lists the rights holder for every other country. The champion collects $5.5 million and the runner-up $2.8 million, from a record $108 million payout.
Sabalenka: eleven games, then the second serve
Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 in an hour and 20 minutes in Thursday’s first semifinal. For 11 games neither broke, and each had a single break point. Sabalenka held for 6-5, and a few points into Pegula’s next service game hit a backhand Pegula could not handle to take the set. In the second she went after the second serve. She broke for 3-1 with a forehand return winner off one, and by the WTA’s count Pegula won five of her 19 second-serve points in the match. Sabalenka faced one break point all night. Late in the second set Pegula threw her racket to the court.
It was the third year running that Pegula’s US Open ended against Sabalenka, after the 2024 final, 7-5, 7-5, and last year’s semifinal, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Sabalenka now leads their head-to-head 10-4. “I thought her level was insanely high,” Pegula said. Sabalenka, who has not won a major this year, said she had come to New York “super desperate” after a poor middle part of the season, and that she saw the tournament as a last push for the year.
Rybakina: from a set down, twice
Rybakina came from a set down on consecutive nights. On Wednesday she beat Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach her first US Open semifinal and clinch the No. 1 ranking. On Thursday she beat Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Gauff took the first set in 38 minutes and out-aced Rybakina, the tour’s leader in aces, 4-1 in it. After that Gauff served at 4-5 in each of the next two sets and was broken both times. The match ended with her overhead, hit into an open court, landing long on Rybakina’s first match point.
Rybakina had never been past the fourth round in New York before this year, and she arrived having retired injured from Cincinnati last month. Asked about Saturday, she said she would need to “serve much better than today and stay aggressive.”
The head-to-head
Saturday is their 18th meeting and their third major final, and Sabalenka leads 10-7. She won the first final, in Melbourne in 2023. Rybakina won the second there in January, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, taking six of the last seven games after trailing 3-0 in the third set. That match came two months after Rybakina beat Sabalenka for the WTA Finals title in Riyadh. Sabalenka answered in March, beating her in the Indian Wells final and again in the Miami semifinals.
According to Opta, it is only the second time since the Australian Open moved to hard courts in 1988 that the same two women have met in both the Australian Open and US Open finals in one season. The first pair were Steffi Graf and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, in 1994.
What is at stake
For Sabalenka, a fifth major title and a first of 2026. It is her fourth consecutive US Open final and her eighth consecutive final at a hard-court major, and she has not lost a match at Flushing Meadows since Gauff beat her in the 2023 final. Two women in the Open Era have won three US Open titles in a row: Chris Evert, who won four straight from 1975 to 1978, and Williams.
For Rybakina, a third major, a second this season and a first in New York, after Wimbledon in 2022 and Melbourne in January. The No. 1 ranking is hers either way from Monday, ending Sabalenka’s run of 99 consecutive weeks at the top. How she got there is here.
Related reading
- US Open 2026 Semifinals — Full Line-Up, Thursday and Friday Schedule, How to Watch
- Townsend Broke Her Three Times Early, and Sabalenka Won Anyway
- US Open Champions — Every Men’s and Women’s Singles Winner Since 1968
- Tennis Player Profiles — ATP and WTA Player Index
