Elena Rybakina Becomes World Number One in Women's Tennis
After 99 weeks, women’s tennis finally has a new summit. Elena Rybakina has climbed it.
The Kazakh beat Zheng Qinwen in three sets in the US Open quarter-finals to guarantee she will replace Aryna Sabalenka as world number one on Monday, ending a reign that has stretched unbroken since October 2024. The match itself was a reminder of why she is getting there the hard way.
She dropped a set for the first time in the tournament, lost her rhythm early, and stared down a break point in the decider. Then she shut the door. Rybakina came through 3-6 6-1 6-4, tightening her game when it mattered and leaning on that heavy first serve that has become her calling card.
A first for Kazakhstan. No man, no woman from the country has ever sat on top of the singles rankings. Now it will be Rybakina’s name on that line.
A chase that started long before New York
This moment has been building for months. In truth, it started last season.
Rybakina finished 2025 in a dead sprint. After losing to Sabalenka in the Wuhan Open quarter-finals last October, she rebounded immediately, taking the Ningbo Open title a week later. Then came the statement: beating Sabalenka to win the WTA Finals and plant a flag at the end of the year.
She carried that surge straight into 2026. In Melbourne, she faced Sabalenka again, this time with a major on the line. Three tight sets, two huge servers trading blows, and Rybakina walked away with the Australian Open crown — her second Slam, almost four years after her breakthrough at Wimbledon.
Sabalenka hit back on the hard courts of the spring swing. She won their Indian Wells final, then stopped Rybakina again in the Miami Open semi-finals. Rybakina answered on clay, taking the Stuttgart title while Sabalenka’s form wobbled.
The summer didn’t follow the script. Early exits at Roland Garros and Wimbledon checked her momentum. She rebuilt it in Toronto, reaching the final before running into Iga Swiatek and losing in straight sets.
Then came Cincinnati, and another twist. Chasing Sabalenka’s ranking, Rybakina was forced to retire from her quarter-final against Swiatek with a left ankle problem that had, as she later admitted, been “bothering me for a long period of time”. It affected her movement, her push-off on serve, the foundations of her game. She insisted she had it “under control”, but her US Open preparation “wasn’t great”. She barely trained in the week leading into New York.
And yet here she is, already ticking off the first of her two big targets for the fortnight.
The number one who says it’s “just a number”
Rybakina has been chasing Sabalenka all season, arriving in New York as one of three players with a realistic shot at the top ranking. Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff were the others, both needing the title and an early Rybakina exit to leapfrog Sabalenka.
That door shut on Tuesday night.
Sabalenka’s 99-week run as world number one, the sixth-longest streak in WTA history, will end on Monday. The two could yet meet in the US Open final, a repeat of their Australian Open showdown. This time, the subtext is different: the outgoing number one trying to keep her rival from adding a third Slam and stamping her authority on the tour.
For Rybakina, though, the ranking is not the prize she talks about.
“It’s just a number right now. My goal is to win the tournaments which I play,” the 27-year-old said. She called it “an amazing achievement” but pointed straight back to the volatility of the system. In tennis, points disappear as quickly as they arrive. She knows how fast a lead can evaporate.
Her focus now is Thursday’s semi-final against either Coco Gauff or Mirra Andreeva. On the other side of the draw, Sabalenka faces Pegula. The stage is set for a heavyweight weekend.
A partnership tested and restored
Behind this rise sits a partnership that has already survived a public fracture.
Rybakina has worked with coach Stefano Vukov for almost seven years in total. They first teamed up in 2019 and stayed together until 2025, when they split. Later that year, the WTA banned Vukov from the tour for breaching its code of conduct after an independent investigation into his behaviour towards Rybakina.
Vukov denied any wrongdoing. Rybakina said she was never mistreated by him.
She pushed for his return at the start of 2025. He successfully appealed the suspension and rejoined her team in August. The impact was immediate: in their first tournament back together, she reached the US Open fourth round for the first time in her career. Then came that blistering end-of-season run that dragged her into striking distance of number one.
Now, less than a year later, the teenager he once started coaching has become the player everyone else is chasing.
Rybakina will walk into her semi-final at Flushing Meadows as the new world number one in waiting, with the ankle strapped, the ranking secured, and the trophy still up for grabs.
The question now is simple: having climbed to the top, how long can she stay there?
