Elena Rybakina is the anti-Sabalenka, and it makes for women’s tennis’ best rivalry

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 12: Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan celebrates with the trophy after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in their Women's Singles Final match on Day Fourteen of the 2026 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 12, 2026 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. | Getty Images Elena Rybakina has won three grand slam titles over five years now, so it’s not as if this tradition is super long and storied. But when she does win big, you know that the new videos on social media will include the six-foot Rybakina beaming as she speaks to children. All of the champions do this, as part of the press duties that come with the glory, but not all of them appear to be the world’s sweetest kindergarten teacher during those duties. Rybakina does: “Hopefully, in ten years, fifteen years?” she said to the U.S. Open’s viral lemonade girl, handing her the 2026 trophy, implying that she would one day win it. Rybakina was laughing, smiling. If you followed her cultural victory lap after her most recent slam title, this past January in Australia, you may have been looking forward to another round of sunshine following Rybakina’s latest triumph. The children she comes across in these moments bring out of her something unseen on the court, where she has been dubbed “The Ice Queen” because of her immovable demeanor. As any broadcaster who’s covered her matches will say, when you look at her face and body language, it’s impossible to tell if she’s dominating, getting destroyed, or anything in between. This year, it’s usually been the first of those possibilities: Rybakina didn’t just win the title in New York, she’s now also the No. 1 ranked player in the world after racking up a 49-13 record over the season. The lanky, 27-year-old crusher is not so nice when it comes to her serve and groundstrokes. In an exceedingly rare feat, she overpowered the 28-year-old, four-time slam champion from Belarus, Aryna Sabalenka, for her trophy on Saturday—whom she also beat in Melbourne. The matchup has become one of the premier rivalries in professional tennis; outside of the two major finals, they met two other times this year, with Sabalenka taking both matches at Miami and Indian Wells. Not only do the two players represent the peak of the sport right now, but their competition is also heightened by the extreme contrast in their attitudes. That was on display as much as ever Saturday. As Rybakina gradually hammered the three-set match into something as flat as her expression, Sabalenka’s performance of personality took its predictably turbulent route. The outcome grew inevitable as Rybakina mixed in defensive looping shots with her lasering winners, and Sabalenka was both outgunned and out of rhythm. In these moments, she does not always embody grace: for instance, last year, after losing the French Open final to Coco Gauff, she suggested in her ensuing press conference that the only reason she lost was because God had a prerogative to punish her that day. In the weeks leading up to this year’s final women’s match in Queens, Sabalenka routinely played as much offense with media, fans, and referees as she did on the court. “You guys are, like, a joke,” she said to reporters during one press conference; a few days later, she turned the hard court into a soapbox mid-match, remarking on a rich marijuana smell wafting through the stands. “If they’re gonna keep smoking, I might get high,” she later said of the incident. Rybakina is one kind of composed; while more extroverted than their Kazakhstani champion, most of the rest of the women’s tour is highly media-trained and polished when they speak. Amidst that crowd, and usually rising to the top of it, Sabalenka’s ornery diva antics—for which, along with a tattoo on her arm, she is often dubbed “The Tiger”—make her a loudly tempestuous belle of the WTA ball. Against Rybakina, as the prospect of a US Open three-peat slipped away, she tossed her rackets around and punched herself in the back. Her self-dialogue, always active, reached troubling heights. When it was over (6-4, 5-7, 6-2, with Sabalenka looking solved in the third set) she fully smashed one of her rackets, and had some choice words for the cameraman focusing on her. When Sabalenka externalizes so much of her emotional arc on the court, it lets you appreciate just how much Rybakina is keeping inside. For two players with such similar playing styles, their difference in comportment is as large as the gap separating fire from ice. Between the two, they’ve won just a shade less than half of all grand slam titles over the past three years: a proportion that could increase unless their peer Iga Swiatek turns her game around, or unless the next generation of stars speed up their evolution: Gauff, a two-time slam winner at 23, looms large, as do the other two slam winners of 2026, the 21-year-old Linda Noskova, and 19-year-old Mirra Andreeva. But if Sabalenka and Rybakina maintain their current respective levels, extending their blockbuster run—prolonging their elemental tussle—the rest of the field will all have limited access to the top.

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