Aryna Sabalenka’s world number one ranking is on the line at the US Open, where the Belarusian star will try to shake off recent struggles to clinch a rare three-peat in the final Grand Slam of the season.
Here AFP Sport looks at three talking points ahead of the tournament, which starts on Sunday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center: Sabalenka began 2026 in strong style, lifting the trophy in Brisbane before she was stunned by Rybakina in the Australian Open final. Fourth-seeded Gauff faces a potential quarter-final against fifth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, who won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros as Gauff’s title defense there ended in the third round. Second-ranked Elena Rybakina has been inching toward the top spot for weeks and will get there if she reaches the semi-finals, but the Kazakh’s prospects are clouded by injury concerns. But Sabalenka hasn’t reached a final since, her early exits including a quarter-final defeat at Roland Garros and a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon before fourth-round exits in Toronto and Cincinnati. Rybakina has been ramping up the pressure on Sabalenka, but the Kazakh star’s US Open bid was thrown into doubt when she withdrew from her quarter-final in Cincinnati with an apparent Achilles tendon injury.
She avenged that defeat with a victory over the Kazakh in the final at Indian Wells and went on to complete the “Sunshine Double” with a triumph in Miami.
