{"id":888014,"date":"2026-09-11T10:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888014\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T10:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:16:14","slug":"us-open-tennis-2026-womens-semifinal-results-highlights-aryna-sabalenka-defeats-jessica-pegula-elena-rybakina-defeats-coco-gauff-video-highlights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888014\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open tennis 2026 women\u2019s semifinal results, highlights; Aryna Sabalenka defeats Jessica Pegula, Elena Rybakina defeats Coco Gauff video highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> will take on Elena Rybakina<\/a> in the women\u2019s final of the US Open<\/a> in what will be all but a battle for the world No.1.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the result in Sunday\u2019s (AEST) final, Rybakina will on Monday officially end Sabalanka\u2019s 99-week run as world No.1<\/a>, although fan sentiment is it would be hollow if she loses the final.<\/p>\n

\"Winner<\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final in January.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

And she has a tough ask to do so. Sabalenka looked back to her best \u2013 particularly in the second set \u2013 as she dismantled Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 in their semi final on Friday.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Rybakina had to come back from a set down against Coco Gauff<\/a>, eventually prevailing 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.<\/p>\n

Rybakina beat Sabalanka in the final of the Australian Open<\/a> in January, but Sabalenka has won both their subsequent meetings at Indian Wells and Miami.<\/p>\n

Gauff more or less controlled the first set before the match heated up in the second.<\/p>\n

Rybakina got an early break in the second and looked in control before Gauff got the break back. At 5-4 and 15-all, Gauff looked as if she was put off by the loud rattling of drinking glasses echoing through the silences of Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n

She missed a forehand well over the baseline to give Rybakina a sniff at 15-30, before presenting the set on a silver platter with a double fault as the glasses continued to rattle, and sealed it with a forehand error that found the net.<\/p>\n

The third set remained on serve until the eighth game when Gauff made two rare backhand errors to all but gift Rybakina the break.<\/p>\n

With Rybakina serving for the match, Gauff suddenly found another gear and forced the Kazakh into several costly errors that allowed her to break back.<\/p>\n

Before that, the partisan crowd had gone relatively silent, but roared as one as Gauff brought herself back into the match.<\/p>\n

But it was not to be \u2013 in her own service game, Gauff made another couple of errors, before Rybakina brought up match point with a brilliant drop shot.<\/p>\n

The match ended with another Gauff error. She had Rybakina on the run chasing a lob she did well to get back over, but instead of burying it, Gauff sent it long of the baseline.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina needed three sets to get past Coco Gauff.\u00a0AP Photo\/Kirsty Wigglesworth<\/p>\n

In the first match, neither player was really able to take a hold of the opening set until Sabalenka broke Pegula’s serve to clinch it.<\/p>\n

The early games in the second set looked as if they were following a similar trend until the Belarusian put her foot down in the fourth game.<\/p>\n

From there on it was virtually one-way traffic. The former world No.1 was in control for the rest of the match on her way to a comfortable victory.<\/p>\n

In her courtside interview, Sabalenka revealed she basically crashed a private party in order to prepare for the match.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is known for trying to eat breakfast and dinner at the same places ahead of matches in order to give herself the simplest preparation, which allows her to keep a clear mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my favourite breakfast, I have my dinner (that) has to be done \u2013 even like last night they had a private event, but because I have my ritual they really squeezed me in,\u201d she said in her courtside interview.<\/p>\n

“I felt like I really broke into someone else’s party, but thank you \u2026 for squeezing us in. My routine really means a lot to me.”<\/p>\n

Sabalenka belted 29 winners to Pegula\u2019s 12, which turned their third straight meeting at the pointy end of the US Open into a rout. Sabalenka beat Pegula in the 2024 final and 2025 semifinal, although both matches were tight.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is now on a 19-match US Open win streak dating back to her loss to Gauff in the 2023 final.<\/p>\n

It was the first time since Wimbledon in 2009 the top-four women\u2019s seeds had made it to the semifinals of a slam, and the first time since 1975 it had happened at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka will take on Elena Rybakina in the women\u2019s final of the US Open in what will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-888014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888014","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=888014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}