The Australian Open and US Open double in one season, done by only five women since 1988. Rybakina, the new world number one, plays Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday's final at 4pm ET.
Elena Rybakina can join one of tennis's smallest clubs if she wins Saturday's US Open final: only five women have won the Australian Open and the US Open in the same season since 1988, and Rybakina, who already has this year's Australian Open, would become the sixth, per Tennis365 and Bleacher Report.
Steffi Graf did it twice, in 1988 and 1989. Monica Seles did it twice more, in 1991 and 1992. Martina Hingis managed it as a 16-year-old in 1997, Angelique Kerber in 2016, and Aryna Sabalenka, Rybakina's opponent on Saturday, most recently in 2024, according to both outlets.
Rybakina arrives at Arthur Ashe Stadium as the new world number one, per CBS Sports, and as the No. 2 seed. She faces Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion and top seed, at 4pm ET on Saturday 12 September, in the pair's second Grand Slam final of the season after Rybakina beat Sabalenka at the Australian Open in January.
Sabalenka is chasing history of her own. A win would make her only the third woman in the Open Era to take three straight US Open titles, after Chris Evert's run from 1975 to 1978 and Serena Williams' from 2012 to 2014, per ESPN and tennishead.net.
Only one of those two records gets made on Saturday.
Revised, 12 September 2026: an illustrated portrait of Aryna Sabalenka was added.