From injury fears to triumph, ‘everything aligned’ at US Open, Elena Rybakina says

The stars aligned in Elena ⁠Rybakina’s favour for a US ⁠Open triumph the Kazakh never expected ⁠on Saturday, as she leaves New York the champion and new world No 1 despite an injury that almost derailed her campaign.

Rybakina beat the twice defending champion Aryna Sabalenka for the trophy little more than three weeks after an ankle injury that forced her out of the ‌Cincinnati tune-up tournament, raising serious questions over whether she would even compete in New York.

“I was so upset. I didn’t know actually how it’s going to be day by day. We arrived in New York. We did MRI. It didn’t look that great. We had to talk with a lot of doctors to get opinions [on] what we should do,” she said.

“For seven days I was just going from ⁠my hotel room to the gym, three hours there spending, a lot of recovery, treatments.”