Aryna Sabalenka sat in somber silence with her team following a heartbreaking defeat to Elena Rybakina in the US Open final, a moment that encapsulated a season defined by near misses for the 28-year-old.
Rybakina secured her third Grand Slam title with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory in New York, overtaking Sabalenka as the world number one after her opponent’s 99-week stint at the top. The loss also snapped Sabalenka’s 20-match winning streak at Flushing Meadows and ensured she ends the year without a major singles crown for the first time since 2022.
Throughout the match, Sabalenka struggled to contain her frustration against a composed Rybakina. Her anger was on full display as she smashed her racquet after yielding a break point in the second set, and later threw her racquet away in disgust immediately after Rybakina fired an ace to seal the win. Shortly after the match, Sabalenka was filmed telling a cameraperson to leave while visibly overwhelmed.
“It’s really tough to control your emotions when you lose in the final of a Grand Slam, especially when you were trying to go for a three-peat,” Sabalenka explained. “I just wanted to let it go. If I held it inside, I wouldn’t be able to say a word or I would just go somewhere really negative. So I let all that aggression and disappointment out.”
Former British number one Annabel Croft suggested that Sabalenka’s emotional volatility played a significant role in her defeat. “It was extraordinary to watch because she was very negative toward her own body language in the first set, and suddenly the emotions got the better of her,” Croft said on BBC Radio 5 Live. “She was beating herself. Once she stopped respecting the level of tennis her opponent was playing, she couldn’t handle it at all.”
This final adds to a pattern of heartbreak in major championship matches for Sabalenka. Despite holding four Grand Slam singles titles, she has won only four of her nine major finals, including just one of four as the world number one. All five of her major final losses have come in three sets, with Sabalenka winning the opening set on two of those occasions.
The 2026 season had been fraught with difficulties following her 2025 US Open defense. She lost a tight three-set final to Rybakina at the Australian Open before suffering a pivotal quarter-final collapse at the French Open against Russia’s Diana Shnaider, from whom she had led by a set and 4-1. Her troubles continued at Wimbledon, where she suffered an early fourth-round exit to Naomi Osaka, marking her earliest Grand Slam departure in four years.
Although Sabalenka has captured three WTA titles this year in Brisbane, Indian Wells, and Miami, she has consistently fallen short in hard-court majors to Rybakina. Now adjusting to life as world number two, Sabalenka remains optimistic about her resilience.
“I think overall I should be happy with the level I played, and there are lots of things to take from this tournament,” she said. “Experience shows that I only come back stronger, and these lessons have already made me stronger. This will definitely motivate me to do a better job next year.”
She said she needed to let the aggression out, but losing composure like that usually costs you points, not wins.
Is it true she only wins 44% of her major finals? That’s a shocking statistic for someone with so many titles.
Rybakina played too well under pressure. Sabalenka’s racquet throwing just shows how mentally fragile she is in big moments.