Rybakina dethrones Sabalenka with her first US Open crown

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ELENA RYBAKINA proved herself to be the undisputed world number one after claiming her first US Open title at the weekend.

The 27-year-old from Kazakhstan knew she would be top of the rankings today, overtaking her opponent Aryna Sabalenka, whatever the outcome of Saturday’s final.

A defeat would have certainly taken the shine off that achievement, but instead she was crowned the winner at Flushing Meadows after a 6-4 5-7 6-2 victory.

Two-time defending champion Sabalenka was looking to become only the third woman to achieve a New York “three-peat” in the Open era, after Chris Evert and Serena Williams.

Instead she was left sat in her chair, furiously smashing her racket into smithereens as Rybakina celebrated a third grand slam title.

“I honestly was coming here for the last 10 years and it was never successful, nothing close to that and it’s just incredible,” she said.

Rybakina is an inscrutable presence on one side of the net compared to the unfiltered Sabalenka, who was clearly rattled early on and gave up the only break in the first set with a double-fault.

Yet at 5-4 on serve in the second, the top seed found one of her best shots of the tournament, a backhand at full stretch down the line to bring up two set points.

Rybakina survived that, but a bad miss at the worst time gave Sabalenka a third chance and she punished a second serve to level the match.

The momentum should have been with Sabalenka, but instead she had to ward off a break point at the start of the third before Rybakina held to love.

A stunning winning return, a Sabalenka miss and a hurled racket later, Rybakina had broken early in the third set, before another Belarusian howl of anguish as a volley flew past signalled a second, killer break for 5-2.

Serving for the title was not without its jeopardy with two double-faults — including one on championship point — but an ace clinched the crown.

A tearful Sabalenka, 28, 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 [give] congratulations [to] Elena on an incredible year and an incredible result. Enjoy it.”