Aryna Sabalenka Reaches Fourth Consecutive US Open Final

Aryna Sabalenka is not defending a title in New York this fortnight. She is building a dynasty.

The Belarusian’s charge towards a third straight US Open crown gathered serious weight on Thursday night as she bullied home favourite Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2 to reach yet another final at Flushing Meadows – her fourth in a row in New York and her 20th consecutive win on these courts.

She will hand over the world No 1 ranking on Monday, but she is not surrendering much else.

Sabalenka bends, then breaks Pegula

For a while, the Arthur Ashe crowd dared to believe. Pegula settled first, striking cleanly, reading Sabalenka’s patterns, and feeding off the noise that always swells for an American in the latter stages of this tournament.

Sabalenka, by contrast, simmered. Errors flew off the racquet, her body language tightened, and frustration flashed across her face as the first set opened in a tangle of mis-hits and muttered complaints.

Then the match changed.

At 5-5, with Pegula holding her ground and the rallies stretching, Sabalenka’s game suddenly sharpened. The footwork grew lighter, the forehand heavier, the serve more precise. She punched through at 6-5, ripping the decisive break and with it the opening set. The roar that followed told its own story: this meant more than just another step into another major final.

"I was so desperate to win, I wanted it badly," she said afterwards. "No complaints, I am super happy to pull out such good tennis."

The tension of the first set vanished. The second became a statement.

Power, precision, and a familiar victim

Once ahead, Sabalenka did what she so often does on hard courts: she overwhelmed. Pegula, 32 and still chasing a first Grand Slam title, suddenly found herself dragged into a storm she could not tame.

Sabalenka’s ball-striking turned brutal. She finished with 29 winners to Pegula’s 12, a gulf that told the story of the second set better than any rally could. Returns landed at Pegula’s feet, forehands pinned her in the corners, and the American’s early composure dissolved as the Belarusian raced through the set and the match.

For Pegula, this was a painfully familiar script. Sabalenka denied her a maiden major in last year’s final here, and beat her in the 2023 semi-finals as well. Pegula did manage a win in Berlin in June, a reminder that she can solve this puzzle on grass in calmer surroundings. Under the New York lights, with Sabalenka’s power peaking, the gap reopened.

"Last time I played against Jessica, it was almost impossible for me to get the win so I am super happy to play such tennis, in front of you all," Sabalenka told the crowd.

Chasing Serena and history

What Sabalenka is constructing on hard courts now belongs in historic company. This victory set an Open era record: no woman has ever reached more consecutive Grand Slam finals on hard courts. Since the 2023 Australian Open, every major on this surface has ended with Sabalenka on the final weekend’s marquee.

Her New York streak is just as striking. She has not lost a match at the US Open since the 2023 final defeat to Coco Gauff. Since then, it has been win after win, title after title, with only Gauff able to interrupt her in the biggest match of all.

She is now one step from joining a club that contains only two names in the Open era: Serena Williams and Chris Evert. Three straight US Open women’s singles titles. That is the target.

Sabalenka’s season had threatened to drift away from that kind of conversation. She started the year in irresistible form, completing the “Sunshine Double” at Indian Wells and Miami in March. Then came the stumbles: a quarter-final exit at Roland Garros, a fourth-round departure from Wimbledon, questions over fatigue, focus, and whether the tour had finally found ways to blunt her power.

New York has supplied a blunt answer. She has dropped just one set on her way to the final, rediscovering the ferocity and clarity that defined her rise to No 1.

Rybakina or Gauff – and a defining Saturday

Waiting for her on Saturday will be either Elena Rybakina, the Australian Open champion who will take over at the top of the rankings, or Gauff, the American fourth seed who denied Sabalenka here a year ago.

Rybakina brings a similar weight of shot and a calm, icy demeanour that has unsettled many opponents. Gauff brings speed, defence, and the full force of a partisan crowd that still remembers last year’s triumph.

Sabalenka, though, walks into that final with something neither rival can match: a hard-court major final streak that has rewritten the record books, and a sense that this US Open is about more than a trophy.

It is about whether anyone can stop her turning a dominant era on hard courts into something even bigger – a legacy that echoes the names she is now chasing.