Tennis player Elena Rybakina, who changed her sports citizenship from Russia to Kazakhstan in 2018, will fight on Thursday, September 10, with American Cori Gauff in the semifinals of the US Open. RTVI has prepared information about this match and the second semi-final.
Kazakhstan and Belarus in the US Open semi-finals
Until the semifinals, Rybakina guaranteed herself the status of the first racket of the world thanks to a strong-willed victory in the quarterfinals over the Chinese Zheng Qingwen with a score of 3:6, 6:1, 6:4.
The Moscow native will officially remove Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka from first place on September 14, regardless of the results of the upcoming match. Sabalenka was the women's world number one for a record 99 consecutive weeks.
At the age of 27, Rybakina will become one of the oldest new WTA ranking leaders in history and the first representative of Kazakhstan in this status. The President of the Republic, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has already congratulated her on her success.
28-year-old Sabalenka also continues to participate in the US Open and will fight in the second semi-final on September 10 with another American, Jessica Pegula, her long-time rival. The Belarusian got the better of her nine times, but two of the last three matches went to Pegula.
Sabalenka also reached the semifinals of the US Open for the sixth time in a row, and the final victory in the tournament could be her third in a row.
“I love playing against her [Пегулы]because it’s always a battle, a struggle, and I like to be under pressure,” the New York Post (NYP) quotes Sabalenka’s comment before the match.
Rybakina noted in an interview with the Tennis Channel that she “hardly believes” in gaining the status of the first racket of the world, since the tournament is still ongoing.
“It’s great to get to this point, especially when I was close to it for several months. However, I continue to think about the next match,” emphasized the tennis player, who was invited by Kazakhstan after the Russian Tennis Federation (RFF) refused funding.
Rybakina's opponent Gauff surpassed Russian Mirra Andreeva in her quarterfinals, despite an unsuccessful first set. The American met with the representative of Kazakhstan three times – she won two matches, but lost the last one in August 2026.
“We played in Toronto, and the match didn’t go well for me. I needed to learn from it. I know that aces and winners are waiting for me [от Рыбакиной]but I will fight,” NYP quotes the American.
Where to watch and who to bet on?
The semi-final matches will take place one after another on September 10. Sabalenka-Pegula will begin at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET), and Rybakina-Gauff will begin at 8:30 a.m. ET or later after the first match at the National Tennis Center in New York.
In the US, the meetings will be shown on pay cable channel ESPN. As Al.com notes, DIRECTV and FuboTV offer a free trial of a subscription that includes ESPN.
Bookmakers in the USA are inclined to believe that the final pair will be Rybakina and Sabalenka. The coefficient for the victory of the representative of Kazakhstan in the semi-final is -121 (54% probability), and the Belarusian -208 (67%).
Tennis players from the post-Soviet space have played each other 17 times in their careers. Ten matches ended in victories for Sabalenka, and seven for Rybakina.
At the same time, Rybakina holds the advantage in terms of victories in tournament finals – she won four decisive matches out of six against Sabalenka. They may meet for the first time at the US Open.
The official US Open website predicts the victory of the Americans in the semifinals. The articles contain a note about a partnership with the Kalshi betting platform, but this site also gives preference to Sabalenka and Rybakina (probability of 64% and 51%, respectively, at the time of writing this material).
