When Elena Rybakina won Wimbledon, she raised her right arm in muted celebration. “Maybe one day you will see (a) huge reaction from me,” she said then. Four years have passed. She has won two Grand Slams in a season and become world No. 1. The celebration has remained muted.

An ice-cool Rybakina raised both arms and allowed herself a tiny smile on Sunday. She had just beaten two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the US Open final, a tenth career win over a world No. 1, sixth of those against Sabalenka alone. And to think she was not even sure of being able to play the tournament.

An achilles injury in Cincinnati had forced her off the court for a week. She began her Flushing Meadows campaign tentatively, three days after that. Rybakina’s performance through the next 10 days was a testament to her fortitude and phlegmatic manner.

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In sharp contrast stood Sabalenka. The top seed, irrepressible in all senses of the word, fought against her own emotions. She had seemed invincible in her semifinal; opponent Jessica Pegula remarked, “I don’t really think there was much I could have done today.” The same Sabalenka was shrieking in despair two days later, unhappy with herself and the world.

The cause was Rybakina’s hard-hitting brilliance in the first set. The Belarusian is not used to playing fetch at the baseline, she is generally the one subjecting others to that treatment. Forced to defend and retrieve left-right-centre, Sabalenka wilted.

This, even though Rybakina’s serve, her prime weapon, was out of order. The Kazakh landed just eight of her 30 first serves in the opening set. Yet she held sway, conducting traffic from the back of the court.

Sabalenka served her way out of trouble in Game 3, saving three break points. She could not repeat it. A double fault broke her serve in the fifth game, her internal disarray made visible. She smashed a ball into the stands for a code violation, and the frustration only deepened when she was left harried on set point.

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Outpaced and outsmarted, Sabalenka changed her attire, looking to hit reset. It worked, for a while. She returned with her groundstrokes deep and powerful again, the errors fewer.

Meanwhile, Rybakina’s serve firmed up but her forehand fell apart in Set 2. She leaned on her down-the-line backhand to bail her out, repeatedly. Sabalenka had two break points, set points both, in Game 10. She could not take either.

Another chance came at 6-5. Rybakina fluffed a forehand at deuce and netted her first serve at advantage. Sabalenka pounced on the second and was third-time lucky.

The match was level, and a thrilling decider looked ready to arrive. Rybakina snuffed it out immediately, levelling up her forehand returns in the third game of the final set. Sabalenka’s serve buckled under the pressure, errors arriving in her pursuit of perfection. Rybakina broke again in the seventh game, moved within touching distance of the title, and sealed it with an ace, her twelfth of the match. Sabalenka broke her second racket of the evening.

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Aryna Sabalenka hols her smashed racket after losing the women’s singles final of the US Open tennis championships against Elena Rybakina in New York.

“I just wanted to let all of that aggression and disappointment go outside (on the court),” Sabalenka said. “It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of a Grand Slam and when you were trying to go for (a) three-peat, so I just wanted to let it go.”

In tears during her runners-up speech, Sabalenka congratulated Rybakina for “an incredible year and incredible result.” She added: “Well deserved, enjoy, have fun tonight and until the end of the season so I can win some titles, thank you.”

The new No. 1 flashed a rare smile in response. “I was coming here for the last 10 years and it was never successful. I’m falling in love with New York more and more,” Rybakina said, before Maria Sharapova handed her the trophy.

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She reserved special praise for her adversary. “Aryna, you are a great champion and it’s so difficult to play against you. You push to such limits, I was diving on the court and just trying to get all of the possible balls.”

The rivalry is only expected to sharpen from here, even as the two players now set off on different trajectories. Sabalenka, who had scooped at least one major in each of the past three years, three of them in 2025 alone, ends this season with none. Rybakina’s reign as the undisputed leader of the women’s game has just begun.

Her predecessor held the top spot for 99 weeks straight. “Let’s see if Elena can beat me in that,” Sabalenka told reporters. “If she continues playing like that, I am in trouble.”

Whatever record she chases next, it seems unlikely to change how she celebrates getting there.