By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The US Open women’s singles draw appeared to be following a remarkably predictable script — until Elena Rybakina decided to rewrite the ending.
Rybakina, the No. 2 seed, dethroned Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 on Saturday to capture her first US Open title and her third Grand Slam crown. In doing so, she denied Sabalenka a third consecutive championship at Flushing Meadows.
The result gave the tournament a fascinating statistical twist. The top four seeds made the semifinals, and the top two made the final, but the top seed could not complete the final step.
Sabalenka had arrived in New York with a 19-match winning streak at the US Open and was bidding to become only the third woman in the Open Era, after Chris Evert and Serena Williams, to win three consecutive titles in New York.
Instead, Rybakina ended both ambitions in one evening.
The victory also completed a remarkable rise for the Kazakh, who will become the new world No. 1 when the rankings are updated. She had already beaten Sabalenka in the Australian Open final earlier this year and now has two Grand Slam victories over her rival in 2026.
The US Open therefore delivered something unusual: the seedings got almost everything right — right up to the final point as for the first time since 1975, all four top seeds reached the semifinals, with No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka facing No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 2 Rybakina taking on No. 4 Coco Gauff.
The script became even more striking when the top two seeds advanced to the final.
Sabalenka, the defending champion and top seed, defeated Pegula 7-5, 6-2, while Rybakina overcame Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a final between the tournament’s top two seeds — exactly what the seedings would have suggested. But that was where the order of merit stopped dictating the outcome.
