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.

World number two Elena Rybakina said she is on ​track to play at the U.S. ‌Open as she recovers from a ​leg injury suffered at ⁠the Cincinnati Open earlier this month.

The twice Grand Slam winner retired in the ‌first set of her Cincinnati quarter-final match against Iga Swiatek ‌on August 20 with an ‌ankle ⁠problem.

“I’m quite confident with the ⁠decision we are making each day how to practice, what to do, and especially ​what can ‌happen worst-case scenario. So all these things I feel quite confident,” Rybakina told reporters at Flushing Meadows ‌on Saturday.

“I just feel like ​it’s just few more days and I should be very ⁠fine.”

Kazakhstan’s Rybakina, 27, said it was painful to walk for a couple ‌of days after suffering the injury, but she is glad with how her recovery process is going.

“We will see what’s gonna happen in the next few days, ‌but for now it’s been well,” she ​said. “I always want to go on court when I’m 100% ⁠sure, and it’s the last slam of ⁠the year, so I think everyone will want to ‌try to compete.”

Rybakina is set to open her U.S. Open campaign ​against American Thea Frodin.

Amanda Anisimova survived ​an almighty scare against compatriot Sofia Kenin on Thursday (July 2, 2026) to join a wave of American women marching into the third ‌round of Wimbledon, while Taylor Fritz ensured the Stars and Stripes kept fluttering in the ​men’s draw.

Twelve months after her 6-0 6-0 humbling by Iga Swiatek in the title clash, ⁠Anisimova was on the verge of another painful defeat after being dragged to three sets by former Australian Open champion Kenin but she came through 6-2 4-6 7-6(10-3).

The sixth seed’s reward for a battling victory was a blockbuster Saturday showdown with ‌another Grand Slam winner in Madison Keys, with the duo meeting as their country marks the 250th anniversary of its independence.

Anisimova admitted there were “really awful” moments in her match and she ‌was bailed out by her huge serve, after she fired down 20 aces.

“I never thought I’d say ‌this, ⁠but thank you to my serve, I’m not a good server at all but after ⁠today, I can say that I am,” a beaming Anisimova said on court.

“I’m really happy with my performance, especially with the end. Shout out to Sofia, she’s such a good opponent and a real fighter … I was down and told myself to keep fighting.

“I tried ​to bring myself back to the present moment. ‌I try to remind myself — have fun, you’re playing at Wimbledon. These are the matches I train for, the tough ones, the fun ones.”

Fritz emerging as geniune contender

Fritz had an enjoyable outing in his own all-American clash on Court Two and the 2025 semi-finalist, a genuine contender on grass with his huge ‌serve, advanced with a 6-2 6-2 7-5 victory over Patrick Kypson.

The sixth seed joined U.S. colleagues ​Marcos Giron and Zachary Svajda in advancing, with Michael Zheng, Tommy Paul and Jenson Brooksby all going through on Wednesday.

Giron, Svajda and Zheng face big tests in the next round ⁠when they play French Open champion Alexander Zverev, fifth seed Alex de Minaur and third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime but Brooksby has the unenviable task of trying to topple Jannik Sinner.

Zverev continued his bid for a second straight Grand ‌Slam trophy by beating unseeded Frenchman Valentin Royer 6-1 6-3 7-6(3) while De Minuar dispatched another Frenchman in Adrian Mannarino with a 6-3 6-2 6-2 win.

Victories for Ashlyn Krueger and Emma Navarro meant eight American women advanced to the third round along with Iva Jovic, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff and Claire Liu.

Rybakina through minimum fuss

It was the end of the road for Caty McNally, however, as she ran into a roadblock in the form of 2022 champion Elena Rybakina and went down 6-1 6-2.

Keys progressed with a 6-1 6-4 win over ‌local hope Katie Swan, who could not take advantage of the high-profile support in the Court One stands where Kate, Britain’s Princess ​of Wales, and tennis royal Andy Murray were sat.

Arthur Fery was also watched by Kate in his early games against Finnish qualifier Otto Virtanen on Court 18, and the 23-year-old ⁠wildcard went on to win 5-7 7-6(3) 6-3 6-3 on a sun-soaked morning at the All England Club.

She was ⁠gone by the time another British wildcard Jacob Fearnley fought for nearly three hours but succumbed eventually to Spaniard Jaume Munar 6-4 7-6(3) 6-4.

Even as media speculation swirled about Serena Williams’ participation in ‌the women’s doubles event alongside her sister Venus after a knee injury, her singles conqueror Maya Joint fell 3-6 6-2 6-0 to Alexandra Eala of the Philippines.

Eala will now prepare for defending champion Iga Swiatek, ​who cleared a potentially dangerous hurdle with ease as she beat former world number one Karolina Pliskova 6-1 6-3.

Elina Svitolina sent two-time champion Iga Swiatek spinning out at Indian Wells on Thursday (March 12, 2026) to line up a semifinal meeting with Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina.

Ninth-ranked Ukrainian Svitolina surged home to beat world number two Swiatek 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 while Rybakina thwarted Jessica Pegula’s comeback bid in a 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) victory over the fifth-ranked American.

World number one Aryna Sabalenka kept her bid for a first title in the prestigious ATP and WTA Masters 1000 event on track, holding off Canadian teen Victoria Mboko 7-6 (7/0), 6-4.

The Belarusian star will face 14th-ranked Czech Linda Noskova, who ended the fairytale run of Australian qualifier Talia Gibson 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Svitolina’s aggressive attack was too much for Swiatek, who coughed up eight double faults and looked out-of-sorts in the early going.

The experienced Svitolina made the most of the early chances she was given then held her nerve in a tense third set.

She gained the lone break of the final frame as she won the last three games to take the match.

“I wouldn’t say it was the perfect match, but I could stay in the match and fight and find a way after losing second set,” Svitolina said.

“There is no champion who is waiting for the mistakes, and you have to really try to set up yourself in a good position to attack,” she added. “I was trying to really open up the court and try to take the advantage, because Iga is such an aggressive player, and she moves really well. So if you don’t take the opportunity, she’s going to take it.”

Svitolina closed it out in style, giving herself a match point with an ace and nailing a forehand volley to reach the Indian Wells semi-finals for the first time since 2019.

“You make me feel a bit old with that stat,” quipped the 31-year-old Svitolina, who returned to the top 10 in the world rankings in February for the first time since 2021 and the first time since becoming a mother.

It was just her second career win over Swiatek in six meetings and her first since 2023. But the victory continued a rich run of form in 2026 that has seen Svitolina capture the title in Auckland and finish runner up in Dubai last month.

For six-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek it was another disappointing quarter-final exit this year after she fell at the same stage in the Australian Open and in Doha.

Rybakina halts Pegula streak

Rybakina, the 2023 Indian Wells champion, booked a return to the semi-finals with another win over Pegula, who fell to the Kazakh in the semi-finals in Melbourne.

Rybakina recouped a break that had her trailing 4-1 in the second set and put on a serving clinic in the tiebreaker to end Dubai champion Pegula’s eight-match winning streak.

Sabalenka’s clash with Mboko was also an Australian Open rematch. Sabalenka said the 19-year-old Canadian had made strides since she was swept aside in the fourth round at Melbourne, but the Belarusian’s power and precision ultimately proved too much.

“It was a tough battle today,” Sabalenka said. “Super happy with the performance. Happy the level I played on those key moments in each set.

“I think she was serving much better than she did in that match in Australia,” Sabalenka added. “Definitely a bit more confident and was playing more brave.”

Mboko agreed but said there was room for more improvement.

“It’s never easy to play the world number one,” she said. “I had a lot of chances in the first set… but she was playing really well, especially on pressure points. I’ve got to give credit to her there.”