Elena Rybakina Advances to US Open Final After Defeating Coco Gauff
Elena Rybakina walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium as a two-time major champion and walked out one win from a third, having survived and then subdued Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a bruising US Open semifinal.
For a set, though, this was Gauff’s night.
The defending champion fed off a crackling New York crowd, Michelle Obama among them, and met Rybakina’s weight of shot with stubborn resistance from the back of the court. She soaked up the Kazakh’s first-strike aggression, teased out errors, and broke in the sixth game. When she sealed the opening set, the noise inside Ashe felt like a title had already been won.
Rybakina didn’t flinch for long.
The fourth seed’s level dipped in the second set, her forehand leaking mistakes just as Rybakina tightened the screws. The Wimbledon champion began to read Gauff’s patterns, stepped in on second serves, and turned rallies into straight-line assaults. The errors that had buoyed the American in the first set started coming from her own racquet.
The shift was stark. The roar dulled. Rybakina’s game, suddenly, was the only one dictating.
She broke through in the second set, punished Gauff’s “sloppy play” to level the match, and the stadium’s early swagger gave way to a wary hush. The rallies grew shorter, the winners heavier. Gauff still chased, still defended, still found the lines often enough to keep the scoreline close, but the balance of power had swung.
By the decider, Rybakina was in full command of the terms.
Her serve, so erratic in the first hour, became the platform. She bullied her way into Gauff’s service games, forcing the American to come up with spectacular shots just to hold ground. At 3-3, the pressure finally told. Rybakina broke to move 5-3 ahead, the kind of lead she rarely surrenders.
Gauff, as ever, refused to accept the script. She broke back, igniting one last surge from the stands and hinting at another of the comebacks that have defined her rise.
But she could not back it up.
Serving to stay in the match, the defending champion faltered. Rybakina pounced, broke again, and closed out the win with the same ruthless clarity that had turned the contest on its head. From a set down against the home favorite to a place in Sunday’s final: it was the performance of a player who knows exactly how to navigate the sharp end of a major.
She will now face Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of this year’s Australian Open final, a three-set battle Rybakina won. The stakes are higher this time: New York, a third major, and Sabalenka chasing a slice of history.
Sabalenka steamrolls Pegula to the brink of a New York three‑peat
Earlier in the day, Sabalenka had already set the tone.
The top seed beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2, moving within one victory of a rare third consecutive US Open title. It did not start smoothly. It ended with a statement.
Sabalenka simmered through the early games, her frustration as visible as her power. Pegula saved an early break point with a crisp forehand winner, and when Sabalenka double-faulted in the ninth game, she hammered her racquet into the court. A game later, as Pegula held for 5-5, the racquet went flying again.
The anger sharpened her.
On set point, Sabalenka stepped in from the baseline and ripped through Pegula’s defenses, breaking to take the opener 7-5. From there, the match became one-way traffic.
Her numbers told the story: 29 winners, seven aces, and a barrage of deep, unreturnable blows that pinned Pegula behind the baseline. The American, last year’s runner-up, had come in with belief after beating Sabalenka in Berlin in June. This time, she never found a foothold.
Pegula’s game frayed in the second set. Mistakes crept in under the onslaught, and the third seed’s measured patterns unraveled against Sabalenka’s raw pace. Every short ball was punished, every tentative second serve exposed.
Sabalenka, by contrast, played with the conviction of a player who trusted every choice she made.
“I was so desperate for the win, I wanted it badly,” she said afterward, describing the urgency that fueled her performance. Reflecting on the level she reached against Pegula compared with their previous meetings, she added that this was “definitely the better level” from her side.
Pegula could only agree with the evidence in front of her.
“She played insane. She played a super-high level,” the American said, admitting that even her best tennis might not have been enough. “Honestly, I don't really know if there was much I could do today.”
Sabalenka closed the match with an unreturnable shot driven deep into Pegula’s court, a fitting final blow from a player who had spent the afternoon dictating.
Now New York gets a final worthy of its stage: Sabalenka, the top seed chasing a three-peat, against Rybakina, the woman who beat her in Melbourne and has just taken out the defending champion.
Power against power. History on the line. One of them walks out of Ashe with the era starting to bend their way.
