Outgoing world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka has been fined $7,500 for smashing her racket at the end of her U.S. Open final defeat to incoming world No. 1 Elena Rybakina.
Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion, saw Rybakina end her title defense with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win Saturday in New York. When it was over, the 28-year-old Belarusian smashed one of her rackets into the court while sitting on her bench at the side of Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of the Grand Slam and when you were trying to go for three-peat. So I just wanted to let it go, because if I would hold it inside, right now or there on the court, I wouldn’t be able to say a word, or I would just go not really nice over there,” the four-time Grand Slam champion said in her news conference Saturday.
“So I just wanted to let all of that aggression and disappointment go outside.”
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Sabalenka’s fine was for racket abuse, a code violation that saw 10 other players fined during the 2026 tournament, according to a statement of fines issued by the USTA. Per the Grand Slam Rulebook:
“Players shall not violently or with anger hit, kick or throw a racquet or other equipment within the precincts of the tournament site.”
The other fines for racket abuse included France’s No. 10 seed Arthur Fils, Argentina’s No. 24 seed Francisco Cerúndolo and another Frenchman, Corentin Moutet, who also received a $10,000 fine for violating part of the lengthy “Dress and Equipment” code. Others received fines f0r audible obscenities — swearing out loud on court.
Swiss No. 12 seed Belinda Bencic was fined $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct after she swatted a ball into the crowd during her first-round match against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan and hit a spectator. Bencic was not disqualified from the match for the incident.
France’s Térence Atmane received a $7,500 verbal abuse fine from his dramatic, cramp-stricken loss to Spain’s Jaume Munar. During the match, Atmane said to a trainer who refused to treat him for muscle pain: “Stop acting stupid and treat me, I have pain, p-a-i-n.”
As the trainer, who believed that Atmane was still cramping, left, Atmane asked to see his credential to learn his name, which the trainer declined to show.
But the largest fine of the 2026 U.S. Open was handed out for a player’s conduct in its earliest round: the opening matches of singles qualifying. 19-year-old Luisina Giovannini of Argentina was fined $20,000 for violating a lesser-seen rule: first-round performance.
The rule is designed to prevent players who are not fit to complete a match from entering and playing purely to collect prize money. At this year’s U.S. Open, players who lost in the first round of qualifying earned $32,000, so Giovannini was fined just over 60 percent of the money she earned in a 17-minute loss to Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti. Giovannini, who arrived in New York having not played a competitive match in two months, retired while trailing Bronzetti 5-0 in their opening set.
Per the rulebook: “If in the opinion of the Referee the player did not perform to the required professional standard, the Referee may determine that the player be subject to a fine of up to first-round prize money.”
Considerations related to this rule include how long a player has been absent ahead of a match, any recent retirements due to injury and whether or not they used their “best effort.”
In total, the fines for this year’s event, which are deducted from players’ prize money, totaled $112,500.