{"id":69921,"date":"2026-09-09T21:49:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/69921\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T21:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T21:49:34","slug":"elena-rybakina-claims-world-no-1-spot-in-reaching-us-open-semi-finals-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/69921\/","title":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina claims world No 1 spot in reaching US Open semi-finals \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elena Rybakina will become the No 1 woman in the world for the first time after orchestrating a supreme recovery to reach the semi-finals of the US Open<\/a> with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over the Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.<\/p>\n

By becoming just the 30th player in the history of the WTA to reach the No 1 ranking, Rybakina ends Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s extended spell at the top. The Belarusian has held the position for 99 consecutive weeks, the sixth-longest consecutive reign in history, and 107 weeks in total.<\/p>\n

During last year\u2019s North American hard court swing, Rybakina fell out of the top 10 and she was struggling badly with her health and game. She has responded with by far the best year of her career, following up her WTA Finals triumph in November with her second grand slam title at the Australian Open, four years after her first triumph at Wimbledon. Rybakina has also won titles in Ningbo and Stuttgart in addition to finishing runner-up in Indian Wells and Toronto.<\/p>\n

Between Sabalenka\u2019s difficult past five months and Rybakina\u2019s resurgence, the Kazakhstani arrived in New York fully conscious of the opportunity before her. The No 1 ranking was always in her hands, with a run to the semi-final guaranteeing it from the beginning.<\/p>\n

However, so many things seemed to be conspiring against her. Rybakina was forced to retire from her quarter-final against Iga \u015awi\u0105tek at the Cincinnati Open, 12 days before her first round in New York, due to an Achilles injury. Rybakina said she did not train for seven days and she was unsure of how her body would react. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do much in the gym movement-wise, so we had to really go day by day,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s an amazing progress. I\u2019m really glad how everything worked out. We didn\u2019t even know if I\u2019m going to be able to play or not. I have a great team. Also, a good doctor on the phone all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a semi-final has always been attainable, the US Open has long stood as her most challenging major, the one grand slam Rybakina has struggled to perform at. Her fourth-round loss last year was previously her best result in New York. This time, she has maintained her focus and navigated each challenge.<\/p>\n

Rybakina started slowly against a Zheng radiating confidence after her previous comeback victories over Madison Keys and Swiatek and in a contest between two of the biggest servers in the world, one sloppy service game from Rybakina marked the difference between them in set one.<\/p>\n

But the 27-year-old responded brilliantly, finding rhythm behind her destructive serve and dominating the baseline with her easy power to quickly force a third set. Although Rybakina eased through her service games early in set three, it was Zheng who generated the first enormous opportunity, earning a break point at 4-3 in the third set. A tentative forehand approach shot and volley from Rybakina provided Zheng with a straightforward pass, but the Chinese fired her backhand long. Rybakina immediately slammed the door shut with some excellent serves, and she completed a sequence worthy of the best player in the world by rolling through the final three games.<\/p>\n

As Zheng\u2019s final feeble forehand landed in the bottom of the net, Rybakina celebrated this career-defining milestone in a typically understated manner, her expression barely changing as she meekly closed her hand into a fist. This is an enormous achievement that has surely secured her status as a future hall of famer, but the end goal of this week, winning her first US Open title, has still not been attained. After handling the pressure of the No 1 ranking so impressively, she will be even tougher to beat. \u201cIt\u2019s just a number right now,\u201d said Rybakina. \u201cOf course, I\u2019m in the semis so my goal is to win the tournaments which I play, I go just one match at a time. It\u2019s an amazing achievement but you know how quickly everything can change in tennis. I just need to focus on my game, try to recover and enjoy tomorrow.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the last remaining quarter-final, 2023 champion Coco Gauff<\/a> beat Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 to return the semi-finals for the first time since her triumph three years ago.<\/p>\n

The home hope had none of her usual firepower at first and was on \u200bthe ropes in the tie-break before she flipped the script and \u2060closed out the match with a forehand strike, dropping \u200cher \u200cracket \u200bto the court in joy and relief.<\/p>\n

Andreeva \u200blooked completely at home in \u200bArthur Ashe Stadium as she sprinted through the first \u200cfour games, never allowing \u200bGauff to set up a breakpoint chance in the \u2060opening set where the \u2060Russian \u200bhad just five unforced errors to Gauff\u2019s 14.<\/p>\n

They settled into a fine fight in the second set, trading breaks twice before the tie-break, where Gauff deployed a perfectly placed backhand to win a 39-shot rally and \u200ctwice saved match \u2060point.<\/p>\n

Andreeva flung her racket at her bench in disgust after dropping her serve in the \u200cthird game of the decider and Gauff broke her to love \u200bin the seventh game to put \u200bthe contest completely out of reach.<\/p>\n

Gauff will now face Rybakina in \u2060the last four, while Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula face off in the other semi-final. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elena Rybakina will become the No 1 woman in the world for the first time after orchestrating a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69922,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[185,246,616],"class_list":["post-69921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-elena-rybakina","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}