Aryna Sabalenka realised she was probably going to lose the No. 1 ranking to Elena Rybakina. There wasn’t much she could do about that.

The U.S. Open trophy is a different story.

Rybakina can only take that away from Sabalenka by winning it on the court on Saturday (September 12, 2026), and the two-time defending champion showed in an overpowering display in the semifinals how serious she is about a three-peat — which would be the first at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams from 2012-14.

“I wanted badly to go to the finals, and of course I want to go all the way,” Sabalenka said.

Rybakina set up a matchup between the top two players in women’s tennis by rallying past Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 in the first semifinal, running away with the second set after they played largely even in the first.

Sabalenka is currently No. 1 and Rybakina No. 2 in the WTA rankings, but that changes Monday (September 14) after Sabalenka held the top spot for 99 consecutive weeks.

Rybakina won the Australian Open to start the season, beating Sabalenka, and the four-time Grand Slam champion had a poor summer by her standards to allow Rybakina to keep closing.

Rybakina needed only to reach the semifinals in New York to clinch the No. 1 ranking.

“It’s a lot of work, and yeah, that was one of my goals, but right now not much I could do. I didn’t really perform well in the middle of the season,” Sabalenka said. “Elena took it over and played really well, and she took away No. 1 position.” The second semifinal was more a battle, with Gauff trying to fight from behind in the final two sets, but Rybakina not letting her come all the way back.

Gauff jumped on Rybakina with a strong start — she had four aces to one for Rybakina, who leads the WTA Tour in that category — in a first set that she took in 38 minutes.

“Took a deep breath, was trying to talk positive with myself and just told myself that I need to fight and try to show good tennis,” Rybakina said.

Gauff trailed 4-1 in the second set and battled back to 4-all before Rybakina won the next two games. Rybakina went ahead 5-3 and served for the match, but Gauff broke to give herself one more chance while being cheered by a crowd that included former first lady Michelle Obama.

Gauff won her first major title as a teenager when she rallied past Sabalenka in the 2023 U.S. Open final, but nobody has been able to knock off the Belarussian in Flushing Meadows since. Pegula put up a good fight in the 2024 final and last year’s semifinals, but she couldn’t keep it close the way Sabalenka played Thursday – and wasn’t sure anybody else would’ve, either.

“I think that’s definitely — you can ask her — probably the best match she’s played this year,” Pegula said. “I mean, I thought her level was insanely high.” Sabalenka pounded 29 winners to Pegula’s 12. She has won 19 straight matches at the U.S. Open since losing to Gauff in the 2023 final.

The top four seeds made it to the women’s semifinals at the U.S. Open for the first time since 1975. Sabalenka, Rybakina and Gauff have all won multiple major titles, while Pegula is still looking for her first.

Sabalenka won 14 of 19 points on Pegula’s second serve, smashing balls back more quickly than they were coming at her.

Still, Pegula hung with her for a while.

It was already 4-all in 25 minutes and Sabalenka appeared to be getting frustrated with not getting anywhere on Pegula’s serve, waving at her coaches’ box in disgust after one miss. Pegula had won 18 of 20 points on her first serve when she stepped to the line serving with Sabalenka leading 6-5.

Then Sabalenka suddenly hit a backhand winner, Pegula sent a forehand long and Sabalenka hit another winner to set up a set point, and finished off the set a couple points later.

Two times Grand Slam winner Coco Gauff staved off another early exit from Wimbledon ​by beating Argentina’s Solana Sierra 6-3 3-6 7-6(10-7) with a ‌tiebreak turnaround to reach the third round on Wednesday (July 2, 2026).

Wimbledon ​is the only major where the American ⁠has yet to go beyond the fourth round and the seventh seed was staring down the barrel of defeat against an opponent ‌who last year became the first lucky loser to reach the women’s last 16 in the ‌Open era.

Gauff rattled through the first set on Court ‌One ⁠but lost her way in the second, possibly ⁠unsettled by a bizarre serve that went sideways into the umpire’s chair.

Sierra, now ranked 56 in the world and with a direct entry to ​the tournament, broke the ‌American to love to go 2-0 up and forged 4-1 ahead before ensuring the match went into a third set.

The 22-year-old Argentine then had a break point on ‌1-1 but Gauff saved it and dished up a ​mighty 124 mph serve to regain the advantage and go 2-1 up.

Sierra saved a break point ⁠for 2-2, and two more to hold at 3-3, before turning things around and breaking Gauff to go 4-3 up.

Serving ‌to stay in the match at 5-3, Gauff held on and then broke her opponent to regain the momentum and leave Sierra on the back foot and fighting for survival.

The Argentine took a 7-4 lead in the tiebreak but Gauff then won six points in a row, ‌capping her performance with a 117 mph ace on the first of ​two match points.

“Solana played a great match and, yeah, I think it was just tug of ⁠war with us,” said Gauff.

“She was hitting some big shots so ⁠I felt like a lot of times I was on the defence. I was trying to be ‌aggressive when I could but overall just happy with my serve.

“I thought it held up the whole match ​and obviously it helped me in the tiebreaker.”

Players would boycott the French ‌Open if their prize money at the claycourt Grand Slam is not increased, women’s ​world number one Aryna Sabalenka said on Tuesday, with Coco Gauff also voicing ⁠support for the drastic step.

The threat deepens a dispute between players and Roland Garros organisers over prize money distribution, even though this year’s tournament offers a 9.5% increase to 61.7 million euros ($72.19 million).

Several top players released a statement ‌on Monday saying they were set to receive prize money that would likely still be less than 15% of tournament revenue, well short of the 22% they demanded ‌to match ATP and WTA combined 1000 events.

When asked how far players might push their ‌demands, ⁠Sabalenka told reporters at the Italian Open: “I think at some point we will boycott ⁠it (the tournament), yeah. I feel like that’s going to be the only way to fight for our rights.

“Let’s see how far we can get, if it’s going to take players for boycott… Some of the things, I feel like it’s really ​unfair to the players. I think at ‌some point it’s going to get to this.”

However, the world number one struck a hopeful note about ongoing negotiations.

“I just really hope that all of the negotiation that we are having, we at some point are going to get to the right decision, to the conclusion that ‌everyone will be happy with,” she added.

Reuters has contacted the French Tennis Federation for comment.

The ​prize money boost of 5.4 million euros compared to 2025 still leaves Roland Garros trailing its Grand Slam rivals.

The U.S. Open offered $90 million last year while Wimbledon ⁠paid out 53.5 million pounds ($72.51 million) and the Australian Open a record A$111.5 million ($80.06 million) this year.

Gauff says players must form union

World number four Gauff said she could “100% see” players boycotting a Grand Slam ‌if they took the decision together as one.

“It’s not about me. It’s about the future of our sport and also the current players who aren’t getting as much benefits, maybe, as even some of the top players are getting when it comes to sponsorship and things like that,” Gauff said.

“We’re making money off court. When you look at the (players ranked) 50 to 100, 50 to 200, how much money each Slam makes, it’s kind of unfortunate where the 200 best tennis players are living ‌paycheck to paycheck.”

Gauff also suggested the players must form a union, highlighting how the WNBA basketball players’ union reached a ​tentative agreement on a collective bargaining deal earlier this year after nearly 17 months of negotiations.

“Just taking what the WNBA accomplished. They also have a union, so I ⁠think that helps,” she added.

“From the things I’ve seen with other sports, usually to make massive progress ⁠and things like this, it takes a union.”

Sabalenka said the players deserved more prize money.

“When you see the number and you see the amount the players are receiving… I feel ‌like the show is on us. I feel like without us there wouldn’t be a tournament and there wouldn’t be that entertainment,” Sabalenka added.

“I feel like definitely we deserve to be ​paid more percentage. What can I say?”

Aryna Sabalenka beat Coco Gauff in the Miami Open women’s singles final 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on Saturday (March 28, 2026).

The world No. 1 overpowered fourth-ranked Gauff in the first and third sets with sizzling groundstroke winners and became the first player to accomplish the “Sunshine Double” — winning Indian Wells followed by Miami in the same season — since Iga Swiatek in 2022.

It was Sabalenka’s second straight title at the Miami Open, Gauff’s hometown tournament, and put her ahead of Gauff in their head-to-head record, 7-6.

“You’ve pushed me to be a better player,” Sabalenka said during the ceremony, before adding about the crowd, “You always bring a full stadium.” The match lasted 2 hours, 11 minutes and ended on Gauff getting broken for the fourth time with a wide backhand.

Gauff fought back to force the third set, but couldn’t maintain the momentum she appeared to get from the deafening crowd supporting her.

“It sucks not to come out with a better result but I had a lot of joy this week,” Gauff said to the crowd. “You guys brought energy every day this week.” Sabalenka at times was frustrated by the fan noise, including when someone yelled “out” during a long rally. She used a curse word at the fan and the chair umpire warned the crowd, but also gave a code violation to Sabalenka.

“I shouldn’t be that rude, but come on, you cannot do that,” Sabalenka said at the ceremony. “So let’s agree we were both wrong, so sorry.” Gauff’s off-and-on serve created seven double faults while Sabalenka registered none.

Sabalenka broke Gauff in the first game of the third set, helped by a Gauff double fault and an unforced error. On break point, Sabalenka crunched a backhand winner.

“I was disappointed about that first game of the third set up 30-0 with momentum,” Gauff said. “It was an important game to win in that moment.” The match was attended by Kai Trump, President Donald Trump’s granddaughter and a golfer at the University of Miami. She posted a photo with Sabalenka at the tournament on social media Friday.

Sabalenka, who earned her 24th pro title, said before the match she was happy Gauff had found her best tennis in her home tournament at which she had never gotten past the fourth round.