Photo credit: Simon Bruty/USTA
By Alix Ramsay
Martina Navratilova was gobsmacked. “We finally saw her teeth,” she gasped after chatting to the new US Open champion. “She’s got great teeth.”
No, Elena Rybakina had not just savaged Aryna Sabalenka like a ravening wolf, bearing her fangs and going for the jugular; she had just shown – for the very first time – quite what winning the biggest titles in the world meant to her. She smiled. She couldn’t stop smiling. She looked genuinely and utterly happy. And that we had never seen before.
The normally shy, reserved and unemotional Kazakh punched the air, she waved to everyone, she beamed from ear to ear. Fair enough, she was not dancing around the Arthur Ashe stadium and leading the crowd in endless choruses of Sweet Caroline (and thank heaven for small mercies), but this was a rare display of genuine emotion from a very, very happy woman.
Sabalenka, on the other hand, looked as miserable as sin and on the verge of a major implosion. She kept it together, more or less, as she waited for the formalities after the final (her racket took a mashing and she did nip back stage for a few moments to vent before returning to sit with her team) but she was in bits.
Rybakina had taken Sabalenka’s treasured No.1 ranking by winning her quarter-final on Wednesday and now she had pushed, tormented and flat out bullied her to win the title 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Her old rival was appearing in her fourth consecutive New York final; she was aiming for a third consecutive win. But Rybakina, who never been beyond the fourth round before, simply would not let her pass.
With immaculate timing and ball striking (and a backhand that was positively lethal), she never gave the defending champion a chance. In the first set, her first serve was registering a pathetic 27 per cent accuracy, not that it mattered. She took control of her second serve and attacked Sabalenka at every opportunity from the back of the court. It was not that her opponent was playing badly, it was simply that Rybakina was so, so much better. Better and, seemingly, without a hint of nerves.
As if this was not an amazing feat in itself, it came on the back of an injury that might have prevented her from playing at all. Rybakina was not even practicing in the days before the Open due to an Achilles problem that had hobbled her in the summer swing. Yet here she was clutching the trophy.
Photo credit: Simon Bruty/USTA
“It is some magic is happening, honestly,” she gushed to Sky TV. “With this injury I feel like in Canada, in Cincinnati, I was so unlucky with the injury. I was going just day by day, listening to my team; they were quite positive, you know. In the beginning we didn’t know how it’s going to be so I’m super happy very proud. And yeah, I just still can’t believe it.”
After losing the first set, Sabalenka stalked off court to clear her head. After losing the second set, Rybakina did likewise. Yet as the third set began – and the momentum appeared to have inched towards the Belarusian’s side of the court – it was Sabalenka who looked as she was carrying the weight of the world on her serving arm. Rybakina, meanwhile, was crushing that backhand and moving effortlessly to a two-break lead. Well, it looked effortless from the sidelines but the new champion admitted it was a little tougher than that.
“She went for the shots, you know, in this tight second set,” Rybakina said. “She risked a little bit and in the third set, I was just telling myself that whenever I have an opportunity, I need to really step in. I need to risk it even if it’s very difficult mentally, I’ve still got to do it.
“Everything was working today and in these tight moments I was just trying to push myself as hard as possible and, as I said on the court, I was basically dying on all these balls. I didn’t care about my foot, whatever happens. I thought this match, I need to really give it all and yeah, it worked.”
Photo credit: Pete Staples/USTA
When she won Wimbledon in 2022, the first of her three grand slam trophies, she barely broke a smile. She was not much more effusive when she won in Melbourne back in January but this time she sounded as if she had got a taste for winning. And if she plays the way she played on Saturday afternoon, she will be doing a lot more of it.
“It’s impossible still to believe,” she went on as Martina admired her gnashers. “It’s crazy; a crazy achievement in my head when I was coming here, and especially playing the final. I thought, wow, it will be really amazing if I can do it this time. It’s going to be three grand slams in different places. I just need to push more and I feel like all my goals are going to be achieved and then it’s going be pure joy. I mean now it’s still, I feel, like a lot of work and I want to push for more.”
So, unless Sabalenka can find a way of stopping her (because, on a hard court, she has few true rivals), we may be seeing a lot more of Rybakina’s teeth in the coming months.