First, she took her status as No1, and then Elena Rybakina dethroned Aryna Sabalenka as reigning US Open champion, dissecting the two-time winner in New York 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to win her third Grand Slam title.
For Rybakina, victory adds lustre to the top spot, earned with a quarter-final win that felt incongruous. The Kazakh knew it, and stressed that she could not celebrate this mammoth achievement yet, not with the tournament ongoing. Now, she has put herself just one major away from the full set after wins in Melbourne and Wimbledon. She has also become the third woman this century
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