NEW YORK — Aryna Sabalenka realized she was probably going to lose the No. 1 ranking to Elena Rybakina. There wasn’t much she could do about that. The U.S. Open trophy is a different story. Rybakina can only take that away from Sabalenka by winning it on the court Saturday, and the two-time defending champion showed in an overpowering display in the semifinals how serious she is about a three-peat — which would be the first at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams from 2012-14. “I wanted badly to go to the finals, and of course I want to go all the way,” Sabalenka said. Rybakina set up a matchup between the top two players in women’s tennis by rallying past Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 in the first semifinal, running away with the second set after they played largely even in the first. Sabalenka is currently No. 1 and Rybakina No. 2 in the WTA rankings, but that changes Monday after Sabalenka held the top spot for 99 consecutive weeks. Rybakina won the Australian Open to start the season, beating Sabalenka, then kept on closing after the four-time Grand Slam champion had a poor summer by her standards. Rybakina needed only to reach the semifinals in New York to clinch the No. 1 ranking. “It’s a lot of work, and yeah, that was one of my goals, but right now not much I could do. I didn’t really perform well in the middle of the season,” Sabalenka said. “Elena took it over and played really well, and she took away No. 1 position.” The second semifinal was more a battle, with Gauff trying to fight from behind in the final two sets, but Rybakina not letting her come all the way back. Gauff jumped on Rybakina with a strong start — she had four aces to one for Rybakina, who leads the WTA Tour in that category — in a first set that she took in 38 minutes. “Took a deep breath, was trying to talk positive with myself and just told myself that I need to fight and try to show good tennis,” Rybakina said. Gauff trailed 4-1 in the second set and battled back to 4-all before Rybakina won the next two games. Rybakina went ahead 5-3 and served for the match, but Gauff broke to give herself one more chance while being cheered by a crowd that included former first lady Michelle Obama. “I thought it was a good match, and it honestly came down to a couple of service games of mine in both sets and I didn’t quite hold,” Gauff said. “I mean, I have to look back and see what happened, but she does a great job of just being there every point and putting a lot of pressure on you on service game and return game.” Gauff won her first major title as a teenager when she rallied past Sabalenka in the 2023 U.S. Open final, but nobody has been able to knock off the Belarussian in Flushing Meadows since. Pegula put up a good fight in the 2024 final and last year’s semifinals, but she couldn’t keep it close the way Sabalenka played Thursday – and wasn’t sure anybody else would’ve, either. “I think that’s definitely — you can ask her — probably the best match she’s played this year,” Pegula said. “I mean, I thought her level was insanely high.” Sabalenka pounded 29 winners to Pegula’s 12. She has won 19 straight matches at the U.S. Open since losing to Gauff in the 2023 final. The top four seeds made it to the women’s semifinals at the U.S. Open for the first time since 1975. Sabalenka, Rybakina and Gauff have all won multiple major titles, while Pegula is still looking for her first. Sabalenka won 14 of 19 points on Pegula’s second serve, smashing balls back more quickly than they were coming at her. Still, Pegula hung with her for a while. It was already 4-all in 25 minutes and Sabalenka appeared to be getting frustrated with not getting anywhere on Pegula’s serve, waving at her coaches’ box in disgust after one miss. Pegula had won 18 of 20 points on her first serve when she stepped to the line serving with Sabalenka leading 6-5. Then Sabalenka suddenly hit a backhand winner, Pegula sent a forehand long and Sabalenka hit another winner to set up a set point, and finished off the set a couple points later. Sabalenka put Pegula in huge trouble in her second service game of the second set, eventually pouncing on a 77 mph second serve and hammering a forehand back at 90 mph then Pegula had no chance of getting back for a 3-1 lead. ___ See AP’s full tennis coverage here Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press
