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Elena Rybakina beat Qinwen Zheng 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the US Open semi-finals and secure the world No 1 ranking. She will face Coco Gauff, who saved two match points to beat Mirra Andreeva, while Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov also advanced.
Elena Rybakina beat Qinwen Zheng 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday at Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the US Open semi-finals and guarantee she will become world No 1.
The 27-year-old Kazakh will face Coco Gauff on Thursday after Gauff saved two match points to beat Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-2. Rybakina's victory assures she will end Aryna Sabalenka's reign atop the WTA rankings next week, even if the Belarusian wins a third straight US Open title. Rybakina will replace Sabalenka as No 1 and becomes the first Kazakh player to reach the top spot and only the 30th player in WTA history to do so.
Sabalenka has held No 1 for 99 consecutive weeks, the sixth-longest consecutive run in history, and 107 weeks in total. She had been No 1 during a difficult five months, while Rybakina arrived in New York fully conscious of the opportunity before her. The No 1 ranking was always in Rybakina's hands: a run to the semi-final guaranteed it from the start.
She was the second seed and one of four women who could have left Flushing Meadows as world No 1. Her victory ended the top-spot hopes of Sabalenka, Gauff and third-ranked American Jessica Pegula. Pegula will face Sabalenka in Thursday's other women's semi-final. It is the first time since 1975 at the US Open that the top four women all made it to the penultimate round.
Sabalenka will play third-seeded Pegula on Thursday night. Rybakina said the ranking was just a number right now and called it a different achievement. She said: It is just a number right now. It is a different achievement, but mostly you think about the titles at the end of the day.
She added that being in the semi-finals was an amazing achievement, but during the match she felt she just needed to focus on her game. She said tennis can change quickly. Her goal is to win the tournaments she plays, she goes one match at a time, and she wants to recover and enjoy tomorrow. Rybakina had lost all six of her previous US Open matches after dropping the first set.
She recovered from losing the opening set against Zheng and won in two hours and 14 minutes. She started slowly against Zheng, who was radiating confidence after comeback wins over Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek. In a contest between two of the biggest servers in the sport, one sloppy service game from Rybakina made the difference in the first set.
Rybakina had played all her earlier matches at night and said she was complaining in her head about the shadow during the early daytime match. She said it was tough to find words because the match was difficult and admitted she had not started well and was too negative. She was glad she pushed all the negative thoughts away and kept telling herself to keep fighting.
She found rhythm behind her destructive serve and used easy power from the baseline to force a deciding set. Zheng created the first big chance at 4-3 in the third set, earning a break point after Rybakina's tentative forehand approach and volley opened up a pass. Zheng fired her backhand long. Rybakina closed out the match by winning the final three games.
Zheng missed a chance to break in the third game, and Rybakina broke her in the next before rocketing to victory. Zheng said she got a lot of chances in the third set but did not take them. She called it a bit of a pity to lose the match but said she could take positive things from the US Open this year.
When Zheng's final weak forehand dropped into the bottom of the net, Rybakina celebrated in understated fashion, her expression barely changing as she closed her hand into a small fist. The result has almost certainly secured her place as a future Hall of Famer. Winning her first US Open title remains the unfinished goal of the week. Zheng, the reigning Olympic champion, missed out on her first US Open semi-final.
The 23-year-old Chinese player lost the 2024 Australian Open final in her only previous Grand Slam final appearance. She was a former world No 4 ranked 121 after missing about eight months due to elbow surgery. Zheng went through qualifying and won seven matches in New York, including comeback wins over six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek and former Australian Open winner Madison Keys.
She rocked Rybakina early behind a fierce serve and a variety of shots, effectively neutralizing the Kazakh's power until a slight dip allowed Rybakina to seize control in the second set. Rybakina's rise marks a stunning turnaround from a year ago. During last year's North American hard-court swing, she fell out of the top 10 and struggled badly with her health and game.
She has since delivered by far the best season of her career, following a WTA Finals triumph in November with a second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. That major came four years after her first Wimbledon crown. She has also won titles in Ningbo and Stuttgart and finished runner-up in Indian Wells and Toronto. Her previous best at the US Open was last year's fourth-round appearance, and this major had long been her most difficult.
Now she is in position to add a third Grand Slam title, her first at Flushing Meadows, to her 2022 Wimbledon crown and this year's Australian Open trophy. She is chasing a third Grand Slam title after winning the Australian Open in January, four years after winning Wimbledon. Rybakina's preparation was far from smooth.
She retired from her Cincinnati quarter-final against Iga Swiatek with an Achilles injury 12 days before her opening match in New York and said she did not train for seven days. She said she could not do much movement-wise in the gym, so they had to go day by day, and she did not even know whether she would be able to play.
Rybakina called the progress amazing and thanked her team, plus a good doctor who was on the phone all the time. After handling the pressure of the No 1 ranking so impressively, Rybakina will be even tougher to beat, with Gauff standing in her way. Gauff, the fourth-ranked American and two-time major champion, returned to the last four at Flushing Meadows for the first time since her US Open triumph three years ago.
The home hope lacked her usual firepower at first and was on the ropes in the tie-break before she flipped the script and closed the match with a forehand strike. She dropped her racket to the court in joy and relief. Gauff said she just had to reset. She said she was thinking about Frances Tiafoe and how he came back, and she was just trying to leave the court without regrets.
Andreeva, a 19-year-old Russian and the fifth-ranked reigning French Open champion, looked completely at home on Arthur Ashe Stadium as she raced through the first four games. She did not allow Gauff a break-point chance in the opening set, where the Russian had just five unforced errors to Gauff's 14. They settled into a fine fight in the second set, trading breaks twice before the tie-break.
Gauff twice saved match point in the tie-break and won a 39-shot rally with a perfectly placed backhand. Andreeva flung her racket at her bench after dropping serve in the third game of the decider. Gauff then broke to love in the seventh game to put the contest completely out of reach. In the men's draw, top-seeded Alexander Zverev completed the semi-final lineup by cruising past Botic van de Zandschulp 6-2, 7-5, 6-1.
Zverev, the reigning French Open champion, won the last five games of the opening set to go one set up after just 37 minutes. He saved a set point in the penultimate game of the second before breaking van de Zandschulp to pocket the set. Zverev ran away with it in the third to give himself another early night in a tournament that saw him labor into the early hours of the morning in first- and second-round five-setters.
Van de Zandschulp, a Dutch veteran, upset Carlos Alcaraz in the second round two years ago and beat sixth-seeded Australian Alex de Minaur in the second round last week. Zverev will face veteran Karen Khachanov for a place in Sunday's final. Khachanov advanced when Belgian Alexander Blockx retired from their quarter-final with the Russian leading 6-2, 7-5, 3-2. Khachanov said he saw that Blockx was suffering all over his body.
Blockx, 21, had already been on the verge of retiring from his fourth-round win over Francisco Cerundolo with a rib injury. On Wednesday he played with one thigh wrapped and had medical timeouts for treatment on one foot and pain in his lower back that hindered him much of the match. Blockx said his body just gave up and that he finally understands how physical the slams are.
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IrishTimes:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Elena Rybakina US Open World No.1 Qinwen Zheng Tennis Coco Gauff US Open Semi-Finals WTA World No 1 World No 1 Men's Semi-Finals
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