{"id":887744,"date":"2026-09-11T04:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887744\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T04:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T04:58:12","slug":"elena-rybakina-to-play-aryna-sabalenka-in-us-open-final-after-beating-coco-gauff-in-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/887744\/","title":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina to play Aryna Sabalenka in US Open final after beating Coco Gauff in semis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elena Rybakina overpowered Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 \u200bin a fierce US Open semifinal to secure a title showdown with defending \u200bchampion Aryna \u200cSabalenka and stay on course for a third major crown.<\/p>\n

Gauff absorbed relentless pressure \u200cand stayed strong from the \u2060back to draw errors from Rybakina, breaking \u200bin the \u200csixth game and taking the opening set in front of a roaring crowd that included former first lady \u200bMichelle \u200cObama.<\/p>\n

Rybakina capitalised on some sloppy play by the fourth-seeded American \u2060in the second \u200cset to level the \u200cmatch and silence the Arthur Ashe Stadium \u200ccourt.<\/p>\n

She gained control with her power and broke \u200cto \u200bgo 5-3 \u2060ahead in the deciding set.<\/p>\n

Gauff hit back with a break of her own but her comeback bid \u2060faltered when she could not hold serve, as Rybakina \u200cbroke \u200cto close out the \u200bwin.<\/p>\n

Sunday’s final, AEST, will be a rematch of this year’s Australian Open decider, which Rybakina won in three sets.<\/p>\n

\"Aryna<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka dispensed of Jessica Pegula in straight sets. (Getty Imagers: Sarah Stier)<\/p>\n

Earlier, Sabalenka eliminated American Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2, moving one win away from a rare third consecutive title in New York.<\/p>\n

The top seed simmered with frustration early in the match before finding her best level, sending over 29 winners and seven aces before closing it out with an unreturnable shot deep in the American’s territory.<\/p>\n

Third seed Pegula, runner-up in 2024, had no answer \u200bto the Belarusian’s power and allowed \u200ccostly mistakes to creep into her game in the second set.<\/p>\n

“I was so desperate for the win, I wanted it badly,” Sabalenka said.<\/p>\n

Tiafoe scores US Open comeback win<\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Shelton has triumphed in a five-set thriller that set a new US Open record as the latest finish ever to a match at the New York grand slam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pegula saved an early break point with a fine forehand winner, while Sabalenka \u2060showed signs of frustration, whacking her racquet on the court after a double \u200cfault in the ninth game.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka threw \u200bher racquet to the ground \u200cas Pegula held her serve in the 10th game, but hit her stride to break her opponent from the baseline on set point.<\/p>\n

“I felt like whatever decision I would make, it is the right decision,” said Sabalenka, who lost in her last encounter against Pegula at the Berlin semifinals in June.<\/p>\n

“I would definitely say that against \u2060Jess probably today, compared to the last matches we played, \u200cit was definitely the better level \u200cfrom me.”<\/p>\n

The defeat ended Pegula’s latest campaign for a first major and she questioned whether even her best work \u200ccould have reversed the result.<\/p>\n

“She played insane. She played a super-high level,” Pegula said.<\/p>\n

“Honestly, I don’t really know if there was much I could do today.”<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina overpowered Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 \u200bin a fierce US Open semifinal to secure a title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[4909,64,63,18937,20336,2649,27488,9738,85,747,1751],"class_list":["post-887744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-final","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-semifinals","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-us-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}