Rybakina Overcomes Sabalenka to Win US Open 2026 | Tennis News

All right, so we've just seen Alina Rachina taking out Savalinker in the final of the US Open. Two slams in a season and she also grabs the number one ranking next week. We'll talk about that in a second, but let's go have a recap and see how this match went. Okay, so there it is. 2 hours and 20 minutes. They always play epic finals. I mean, we've had some great finals between these two at slam level. Rebecca wins 645762. And look at the winners and errors. It was Rebecca much cleaner in the game. She played really well at the start. She's 12 aces. Her first serve percentage was a little bit low at 47% but she won a lot of second serve points and uh yeah didn't get broken as much. She did save uh a couple of break points. I only got broken that end of that second set but let's have a look at how the match actually went. All right so Sabalanka serve first and was already under pressure in the first couple of games. She held serve at 30 all. Rebecca held serve to love. I mean she was serving ridiculous and then she got uh she got a couple break points Rebecca but unfortunately couldn't take it then but the pressure kept on coming on Rebecca on Sabalinka. Sorry. And you can see there eventually Rebecca got that breakthrough at 2 all. Then Rebecca almost went up a double break at 4-2, but Sabinga held on strong and then on the second set point at 45 or 54. Rebecca got the win in that first set at 64. All right. Then the second set and Saba serve first again and she ended up holding and then there was a chance there in the in the you know start of the second for Rebecca to really take over this match. Then Saba held and then they holding pretty easily throughout. It felt like we're going to go to a tie break. But the interesting part was when Sabalanka was leading and Rebecca was serving to stay in the set. So the first time she tried at 45 she had to save two set points and then the second time of trying Sabalinka finally got the break and uh and got the second second set with a break 75. Then the final set and Sabalanka had a marathon first game and it felt like oh this is going to go forever. Saved a break point ends up holding serve but then a 1-1. Rebecca gets that break and then that was pretty much all. Well, she just kept holding serve, never gave Sabalinka a chance. Got the double break at 5-2 and then on a second championship point, she wins the match and gets through in three sets against Sabalinka. And that's similar to the Australian Open, right? Three setter again in a Grand Slam final this year for Sabalinka for Rebecca over Sabalanka. Now, if we take a look at the rankings, things are very interesting. So, of course, we already knew when she made the semi-finals, Rebecca ends up being number one, pushing Sabalinka down to number two. The ranking points are now 2,000 points between. And Sabiliger also has to defend that number two spot because you've got Pagoula and Goff just behind. Uh little bit further down, Spedilina ends up going up two spots at number seven pushing Mukova and Shante down and then Costuk jumps into the top 10 and pushes Anisimova out. So yeah, career high for Costuk but of course world number one. Alina Rebecca two slams in a season and we've still got plenty more year like yet left to go, right? She's double finals. We got the Asian swing. So there's a chance that Rebecca could really extend her lead and keep that number one spot for a couple more months. So there it is. That's the final done and dusted and US Open is done. And the hardcore queen, it was Sabalanka. If you look back at the last couple of years, she's been winning the slams at uh on the hard courts, but now it's all Rebecca. She's won the last two grand slams on the hardcore. She's goes to Australia next year. She'll be the number one at this stage. Now, there is a chance because she won the WTA finals last year that she might have to defend that number one spot in Sabalanka and and Goff and Pagula. If they have a really good Asian swing, could really challenge for number one. But if Rebecca just does what she's been doing, she should be able to stay number one for a little bit longer and probably into Australia next year. And that's when maybe the number one ranking will go up for grabs again because she's got to defend that title. But let me know in the comments below, where do you rank Rebecca in terms of all time or even just in this generation? Maybe. That's probably a better question because you've got Osaka, you've got Tionek, you've got Sabalanka, you've got Koko, right? They've all got, you know, similar amount of slams and now Rebecca's got three. She's sort of just ahead of Koko, but just behind Savanka. Where do you rank her in terms of the greats of the decade because, you know, she's really putting it down the challenge to try and, you know, overtake Sabalinka and Osaka and go forward. But there it is. She wins the US Open and she's got three slams to her name.