She may have already gone a set in her first US Open semi-final, but Elena Rybakina had not yet arrived at Arthur Ashe Stadium. As an inspired Coco Gauff rang out the first verse covering every inch of the acrylic surface as her crowd of 22,000 screamed for the Kazakh’s blood, Rybakina was wild and erratic from the baseline and her peerless serve was nowhere to be seen. set out to dominate Gauff and seal her place in her first US Open final with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory. Six matches into her latest Grand Slam odyssey, Rybakina hasn’t played her best tennis at any point in the tournament, but her continued success here underscores her mental growth. This is the fourth Grand Slam final of Rybakina’s career and since her first victory at Wimbledon in 2022, her next three major finals have been contested on hard courts. After waiting four years to win his second Grand Slam, he has given himself the opportunity to win two major titles in the same year. In many ways, this was already one of the most important and successful tournaments of Rybakina’s career. She arrived in New York with a golden opportunity to unlock one of the great achievements of this sport by becoming number one in the world. Despite a terrifying Achilles injury in the lead-up to the tournament and a disastrous record at the US Open, he continued to advance. After that massive success, which she sealed with a tense quarter-final victory over Zheng Qinwen, Rybakina made it clear that she was far from satisfied and that the job was not even half finished. She was here for nothing less than the title. Now she will fight for it in a final that will mark the resurgence of the rivalry that has defined the season, facing outgoing number one Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of the Australian Open final won by Rybakina. Rybakina’s serve came to life in the final set against Gauff. Photograph: Marcin Cholewinski/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock For Gauff, her growth over the past year has been defined by the dramatic improvement she has made on her serve, the shot that made her cry on this court last year. This was the least of his problems here. Gauff was let down by her forehand, which produced 15 unforced errors and simply did not hold up to the relentless pressure of one of the game’s greatest shooters. This was a historic night, the first time in 51 years that the top four seeds reached the semi-finals of the US Open women’s singles draw and the first occurrence in women’s singles at any major event since Wimbledon in 2009. It is a reflection of the strength of the group at the top of women’s football, yet this lineup was no surprise at all. By now, most of the top players have faced each other countless times, but second- and fourth-seeded Rybakina and Gauff have largely avoided each other throughout their careers. Their meeting last month at the Canadian Open, which Rybakina also won in three sets from a set down, was only the second time they met. After so many days of great serving in recent months, Gauff had reached the semi-finals with some doubts to dispel after struggling with the shot in her dramatic comeback win over Mirra Andreeva, where she saved two match points but committed 12 double faults. None of those first serve issues were present in the first set, where she served brilliantly in key moments while drawing countless errors from Rybakina with her defense to take the lead. Skip past the newsletter promo Sign up to Sport in Focus Our image editors select their favorite sports images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a bit of fun after the newsletter promo, Gauff’s forehand let her down in the semi-final against Rybakina. Photograph: Marcin Cholewinski/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock Rybakina hasn’t played particularly well during this tournament, but she has handled every difficult situation well. His response came immediately. Rybakina began the second set looking to open the court against Gauff’s defense by striking wider, uncorking a series of brilliant angled backhands. As she slowly began to find her ground reach, she raced to a 4-1 lead in the set. This was a rough set from both sides of the net, but it was defined by Gauff’s desperate struggles with her forehand. Down 4-5, she produced her worst service game of the match, committing three forehand errors and a double fault to drop the set. Rybakina’s rise has been dictated by one of the sport’s most destructive weapons in recent years: her serve. He finally came to life in the final set in the form of two thunderous aces to close out a 2-1 serve. With her serve finally singing, allowing her to advance through service games in the final set, the pressure was on Gauff to keep up the pace. When she faced two break points at 2-3, Gauff was barely holding on. Although he fought brilliantly to secure control, finding a couple of big serves for 3-3, he gave up his serve at 3-4. Rybakina approached the baseline to serve out the match. As always, Gauff fought desperately to the end and made a spectacular last stand, breaking for 4-5 after hitting a supreme backhand shot at 3-5, 30-30. But as she has done so many times this year, Rybakina quickly overcame her disappointment and forced herself back into the baseline. She reached her first semi-final the hard way, immediately responding with a spectacular return game to snatch victory and move on to a final between the two world numbers ones.
