Elena Rybakina defeats Aryna Sabalenka to claim her first US Open title

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Rybakina, 27, from Kazakhstan, will climb to the top of the rankings from Monday, regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s final and whether she beat her opponent Aryna Sabalenka.

She was crowned the new queen of Queens at Flushing Meadows after a 6-4 5-7 6-2 victory on Saturday evening in New York.

The defeat comes as a disappointment to Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, who was looking to become the third woman to achieve a New York ‘three-peat’ in the Open era, after Chris Evert and Serena Williams.

Sabalenka, 28, went on to smash her racket into the court and break it, while Rybakina celebrated her third Grand Slam title.

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“I didn’t expect anything like this coming to this tournament,” said Rybakina.

“I’ve been coming here for 10 years without any success, but now I’m falling in love with New York more and more.”

Rybakina remained a difficult opponent to read, while Sabalenka was unfiltered throughout the match, having looked clearly unnerved early on and yielded the only break in the first set with a double-fault.

Despite this setback, at 5-4 on serve in the second, Sabalenka, the top seed, found one of her best shots of the tournament, a powerful backhand at full stretch down the line, bringing up two set points.

After Rybakina survived that, Sabalenka was given a third break point after a bad miss, and she punished a second serve to level the score.

Sabalenka should have gained some momentum after this opportunity, however, she had to fend off a break point at the start of the third before Rybakina held to love.

An impressive winning return, a miss from the Belarusian player and a hurled racket later, Rybakina had broken early in the third set.

Soon after, another howl of anguish from Sabalenka as a volley flew past signalled a second, killer break for 5-2.

Serving for the title was precarious throughout, with two double-faults – including one on championship point – but an ace handed the Kazakhstan player the win.

Rybakina will be presented with a cheque of 5.5 million dollars (£4.1m), which is the largest pay-out at a Grand Slam.

Sabalenka, tearful after the match, said: “The last thing I want to do now is give a speech, but I’ll try my best.

“Obviously I’m disappointed but I want to congratulations Elena on an incredible year and an incredible result. Enjoy it.”

“I wish I could perform a little bit better, but I guess next year.”