Aryna Sabalenka didn’t attempt to hide her reaction Saturday after falling in the U.S. Open final, smashing her racket on the court as Elena Rybakina celebrated her 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory just feet away.
Following match point, the broadcast camera followed Rybakina as she acknowledged the crowd before cutting to Sabalenka, sitting on the bench and smashing her racket on the court before tossing it to the side.
Sabalenka, who was going for a three-peat at Flushing Meadows in women’s singles, had ceded the No. 1 world ranking to Rybakina, too, after Rybakina advanced to the semifinals.
“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,” Sabalenka told reporters in her news conference after the racket incident. “So I just wanted to let it go, because if I would hold it inside, right now or here or there on the court, I wouldn’t be able to say a word or I would just go not really nice over there.
“So I just wanted to let all of that aggression and disappointment go outside.”
It marked the second time this calendar year that Rybakina toppled Sabalenka in a Grand Slam final, as she also took the Australian Open title.
Sabalenka, though, had been dominant at the U.S. Open, winning 19 consecutive matches entering Saturday — including the last two titles — and would’ve become the first woman since Serena Williams (2012-14) to win three consecutive titles in Queens.
She also lost just one set at the current iteration of the U.S. Open entering the final.
But Sabalenka’s lasting image for the 2026 tournament, as her bid for the three-peat fell short, was the glimpse of frustration starting to spill over.
“Well, it’s tough to find words right now, honestly,” Rybakina said during her on-court interview following the match. “I didn’t expect nothing like this coming to this tournament. I’ve been dealing a little bit with the injury, but somehow everything aligned together on my side.
“I honestly was coming here for the last 10 years and was never successful, nothing close to that. And, I mean, it’s just incredible. I’m falling in love with New York more and more.”
