Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan has moved into the number one position in the world in women’s tennis. Rybakina moved into first place in the WTA rankings with her 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Qinwen Zheng of China in the quarterfinals of the 2026 United States Women’s Open on Wednesday.
Rybakina now has 8681 points. Sabalenka is second with 7355 points. Rybakina will become the 30th player ever to be ranked number one in women’s tennis officially on Monday. Sabalenka had been ranked first in the world since October 21, 2024.
In Wednesday’s quarterfinal win over Zheng, Rybakina won 12 of the last 17 games after a bit of a sluggish start at Arthur Ashe Stadium. A key statistic was winning percentage on second serve points. Rybakina was at 75% and Zheng was at 51%.
Over the last year, Rybakina became a major champion for the second time in her career. She won the Australian Open by defeating Sabalenka in the final, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Rybakina’s first grand slam title came in 2022 when she defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia in the Wimbledon final, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
In addition to winning the Australian Open in January, Rybakina won three more tournaments which helped her get to the world number one. They were the 2025 Ningbo Open in China where she beat Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, the 2025 WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Sabalenka beat Rybakina 6-3, 7-6, and the 2026 Stuttgart Open, where Rybakina beat Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-1.
In a crazy circumstance, even if Sabalenka wins her third straight United States Open on Saturday, Rybakina will still be number one. Heading into the US Open, four players had a chance to get to first in the world. The other two were Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff.
