By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, September 12, 2026
Photo credit: Darren Carroll/USTA/Getty
NEW YORK—Festering frustration finally erupted.
Aryna Sabalenka spiked her Wilson racquet off the hard court unleashing the annoyance inside.
Elena Rybakina wrecked Sabalenka’s Grand Slam dreams for the second time this season and shattered her 19-match US Open winning streak in the process.
The second-seeded Rybakina dethroned two-time defending champion Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to capture her maiden US Open championship and third Grand Slam crown.
Sabalenka belted a ball into the crowd at one point before slamming her stick off the hard court after seeing her quest to become the first woman since Serena Williams (2012-2014) to three-peat in New York came to an end.
Afterward, the four-time Grand Slam champion said she had to vent to prevent breaking down.
“It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of the Grand Slam and when you were trying to go for three-peat,” Sabalenka said. “So I just wanted to let it go, because if I would hold it inside, right now or here or there on the court, I wouldn’t be able to say a word or I would just go not really nice over there.
“So I just wanted to let all of that aggression and disappointment go outside.”
Though she held back tears during the trophy presentation, in her post-match presser Sabalenka praised new No. 1 Rybakina for outplaying her. Rybakina smacked 12 aces and faced just three break points collecting her third Grand Slam championship.
“Well, yeah, I’m obviously not really happy with the level I played today, but she served incredible,” Sabalenka said. “She played really aggressive, great tennis.
“Yeah, she was simply a better player today than me.”
Sabalenka has not lifted a title trophy since the Miami Open last April, but did deliver one of her best matches of the season defeating third-seeded Jessica Pegula in the US Open semifinals.
The big-hitting Belarusian said this painful defeat will only make her stronger.
“I think overall I should be happy with the level I played, and there’s lots of things to take from this tournament,” Sabalenka said. “I mean, as experience shows, that I only come back stronger and all of these lessons this season definitely already made me stronger, but definitely going to motivate me for the next year to do better job.”
0 comments