Elena Rybakina’s US Open began with uncertainty over a left-ankle injury and will end with her name at the top of the PIF WTA rankings: the Kazakh No. 2 seed fought past Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday to reach her first New York semifinal and secure the World No. 1 position for Monday.
US Open: Rybakina earns historic World No. 1 breakthrough
Rybakina had arrived in New York only days before the tournament unsure whether her ankle could withstand the demands of a Grand Slam fortnight. Practice sessions became fitness tests as she and her team monitored the injury and assessed how far she could realistically go in the draw.
“It was stressful and far from ideal,” Rybakina said. “At the beginning, we had to test the foot, so it was not easy.”
Her team concluded that she could compete, and Rybakina quickly found her rhythm. Before the quarterfinals, she had won four matches without conceding a set, with only Yuliia Starodubtseva taking her to a tiebreak in the third round.
- Rybakina reached the US Open quarterfinals for the first time by beating Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-4.
- Against Osaka, she delivered 29 winners and struck seven aces.
- Zheng, whose campaign began in qualifying, became the first opponent to take a set from Rybakina in New York.
- The 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 quarterfinal lasted two hours and 14 minutes.
Zheng claimed the opening set 6-3, but Rybakina changed the texture of the contest by taking the ball earlier in the second. She won six of the next seven games to force a decider, then held firm in a tight final set. The only service break came when Zheng double-faulted, leaving Rybakina to serve out the match.
A season that narrowed the race at the summit
Rybakina’s rise has gathered pace since the final months of last season. She won the Ningbo title in October, defeated Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA Finals Riyadh championship match, and then rallied from 3-0 down in the deciding set against Sabalenka to lift the Australian Open trophy in January.
She added the Stuttgart title in April and reached the Toronto final after a punishing route that featured four three-set matches and almost 11½ hours on court. Iga Swiatek stopped her in that final, but the demanding run helped reinforce Rybakina’s confidence.
“I played very well in Toronto and also in Cincinnati,” she said. “Toronto had many three-set matches, which was hard, but it also showed me that I can come through difficult matches.”
At the end of 2025, Sabalenka held 9,870 ranking points to Rybakina’s 4,350. Nine months later, the difference had fallen to 414 points, and Rybakina had put control of the No. 1 race in her own hands.
Rybakina’s past 52 weeks
- 62 WTA-level match wins, more than any other player.
- Six finals, level with Jessica Pegula for the highest total.
- Four titles: Ningbo, WTA Finals Riyadh, Australian Open and Stuttgart.
- 16 victories over Top 10 opponents, six more than any other player.
- A 16-6 record against the Top 10, a 72.7% success rate.
- 1,569 winners and 394 aces, both tour-leading totals.
- 65.5% of break points saved, the best rate among players with at least 10 matches.
Rybakina said winning trophies, rather than fixating on the ranking, has remained the central objective for her team. “No. 1 is obviously a goal, but titles are the main target,” she said. “We take it match by match, and the ranking follows from winning tournaments.”
Kazakhstan’s first player at the top
When the rankings update on Monday, Rybakina will become the 30th woman to hold World No. 1 since the system was introduced in 1975. She will be Kazakhstan’s first player to do so and, at 27 years and 89 days, the second-oldest first-time No. 1. Only Angelique Kerber, who reached the summit in 2016, was older.
Her record against reigning No. 1 players also placed her in distinguished company before she joined that group herself. Rybakina had beaten the active top-ranked player nine times before reaching No. 1, bettered only by Gabriela Sabatini’s 10. Venus Williams also recorded nine such wins.
- Rybakina owns a 9-8 record against reigning World No. 1 players.
- Among players with at least 10 such matches, only Serena Williams and Steffi Graf have a higher winning percentage.
- She has defeated nine of the previous 10 women to occupy No. 1.
- Ashleigh Barty is the only former No. 1 from that group whom Rybakina has not beaten.
Rybakina had not yet looked at her phone when she spoke after defeating Zheng, though she knew messages from Kazakhstan would be waiting. “It is history, and I am very proud to play for Kazakhstan,” she said.
Tennis had initially been an after-school activity for Rybakina, rather than an obvious profession. She did not seriously consider making a career in the sport until she was 17.
“I never expected to become a professional, or even to play on stages like these,” she said.
On visits home, Rybakina has noticed the sport’s wider presence, with children training at tennis centres in the cities she visits. Her ascent gives those players a homegrown benchmark at the very highest level.
Still, she made clear that the ranking will not distract her from the remaining matches in New York. “You might appreciate something like this more after your career,” she said. “Right now, you have to continue. You do not know how long you will stay there. My focus is on the next match.”
Sabalenka’s 99-week reign ends as semifinals take shape
Rybakina will replace Sabalenka after the Belarusian’s second spell at No. 1 runs to 99 consecutive weeks. That run began on October 21, 2024, following Sabalenka’s first US Open title.
Sabalenka originally reached No. 1 after the 2023 US Open, when defending champion Swiatek lost to Jelena Ostapenko in the fourth round. Sabalenka then lost the final to Coco Gauff, before Swiatek reclaimed the position eight weeks later at the WTA Finals.
Her later stay at the summit was far more sustained. During it, Sabalenka won the 2025 Australian Open, retained her US Open crown and finished both 2024 and 2025 as year-end No. 1.
- Sabalenka’s 99-week uninterrupted spell will rank sixth in history.
- Only Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, Ashleigh Barty and Chris Evert recorded longer continuous runs at No. 1.
- Her overall total of 107 weeks at the top will stand 10th all-time, moving beyond Lindsay Davenport’s 98 weeks.
Sabalenka has spoken about the burden attached to retaining the top ranking. “People probably do not realise how hard it is physically and mentally to maintain that level,” she said earlier in the tournament. “Once you begin thinking too much about it, you can lose it.”
The outgoing No. 1 remains in the draw, however. Sabalenka survived Linda Noskova in a deciding-set tiebreak on Tuesday and will meet Jessica Pegula in the semifinals. Pegula is the opponent Sabalenka has beaten in New York in each of the past two years.
Rybakina’s semifinal opponent is Coco Gauff, who recovered from a difficult opening set against Mirra Andreeva to claim the other place in the last four. A Rybakina-Sabalenka final would offer an immediate contest between the incoming No. 1 and the woman she is replacing.
Rybakina has already beaten Sabalenka in two major matches over the past year, but Sabalenka said she would gladly accept the ranking change if it delivered a third consecutive US Open title. “Yes, I would be very happy with that,” she said, adding of a potential three-peat: “That sounds great.”
SEO Title: Elena Rybakina secures World No. 1 after Zheng win at US Open
SEO Description: Elena Rybakina overcame Zheng Qinwen in three sets to reach her first US Open semifinal and guarantee Kazakhstan’s first PIF WTA World No. 1.
