NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Factbox on Elena Rybakina, who beat Belarusian top seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 5-7 6-2 in the U.S. Open final to win her third Grand Slam title on Saturday:
Age: 27
Nation: Kazakhstan
WTA ranking: 2
Seeding: 2
Grand Slam titles: 3 (Wimbledon 2022, Australian Open 2026, U.S. Open 2026)
EARLY LIFE
* Began playing tennis at the age of six.
* Born in Moscow, Rybakina switched allegiance to Kazakhstan in 2018.
CAREER TO DATE
* Began her professional career on the ITF Circuit in 2014.
* Won two ITF doubles titles in 2017, followed by one singles and one doubles title in 2018.
* Claimed her maiden WTA title in Bucharest in 2019, beating Patricia Maria Tig in the final, and broke into the top 50.
* Reached the finals at four of her first five events in 2020 before the WTA Tour was suspended for more than five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Won her second WTA title in Hobart and became the first Kazakh player to break into the WTA top 20.
* Reached the French Open quarter-finals in 2021 and finished the year ranked 14th.
* Defeated Ons Jabeur in her first Wimbledon final in 2022 to win her maiden Grand Slam title.
* Reached her second Grand Slam final at the 2023 Australian Open, where she lost to Sabalenka in three sets, and made her top-10 debut after the tournament.
* Won three titles from five finals in 2024, lifting trophies in Brisbane, Abu Dhabi and Stuttgart, while finishing runner-up in Doha and Miami.
* Won three titles in 2025, adding Strasbourg and Ningbo crowns to her Riyadh triumph. Also captured her first WTA Finals title, beating world number one Sabalenka in the final.
* Defeated Sabalenka again in the 2026 Australian Open final to win her second Grand Slam title.
* Secured the world number one ranking by reaching the U.S. Open semi-finals and will become the first Kazakhstan player to reach the top of the women’s rankings. She is guaranteed to take over the top spot when the rankings are updated on Monday.
* Overcame an ankle injury that had threatened to derail her U.S. Open campaign before it began and went on to beat Sabalenka in the final, securing her third Grand Slam title.
(Compiled by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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