When Elena Rybakina left Tennis Paradise in March, the pain was palpable.

How different life will be when she returns to the desert in November! After a historic run in New York this month, the 27-year-old is the new World No. 1, a first-time US Open champion and the first singles player to qualify for WTA Finals Indian Wells, where she will be the defending champion.

Less than four months ago, going into the BNP Paribas Open women’s singles final against Aryna Sabalenka, the Kazakhstani was, on a points basis, still far away from claiming the No. 1 WTA Ranking. But the prospect of a fifth consecutive win in a final over her arch rival would have given her another significant marker in a rivalry increasingly tilting her way and further belief that the summit of the women’s game was her destiny.

But it was a case of so close, yet so far.

Having beaten Sabalenka in the season-ending WTA Finals last November and in the Australian Open final in January, Rybakina held championship point at 6-5 in the third-set tie-break inside Stadium 1. She fired a 121 mph serve up the T only to see Sabalenka brute force a return that she backed up with a backhand winner. Two points later and Sabalenka had stolen victory from the jaws of defeat.

After suffering another loss to Sabalenka less than two weeks later in the Miami Open semi-finals, it seemed that Rybakina had missed her moment.

But tennis fans are learning not to count Rybakina out. Last week in New York, the 27-year-old finally wrested the No. 1 WTA Ranking from Sabalenka by reaching the semi-finals and then completed her revenge by stopping her rival’s quest for a US Open three-peat in a thrilling, hard-hitting final, winning 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

“It's going to be very different to wake up knowing that I just won the US Open and achieved the No. 1 ranking," Rybakina said. "It's kind of a relief... it's a lot of work."

By winning the title, Rybakina became the first singles player to qualify for the WTA Finals Indian Wells, to be held November 8-15. With Sabalenka next in line to qualify, fans visiting the Indian Wells Tennis Garden could be treated to a final 2026 installment of this sizzling rivalry.

Alexander Zverev played 40 majors before getting his hands on his first Grand Slam trophy at this year’s Roland Garros. He’s now won two majors in less than four months after charging to the title at the US Open, defeating American Ben Shelton in Sunday’s final 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2.

The victory was immensely satisfying after the German lost the 2020 final to Dominic Thiem in a fifth-set tie-break after leading by two sets to love. Yet the 29-year-old said that his breakthrough in Paris had already dulled the pain of the COVID-era defeat in New York.

"I think the scars of the 2020 final kind of disappeared after I won in Paris," Zverev said. "I said it at Wimbledon. Even though I lost the final, I enjoyed the match… Before winning in Paris, I felt a lot of stress all the time, because there was always a question mark: ‘Will I ever win one?’”

Zverev has been outstanding at the majors this year. He pushed eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz to 7-5 in the fifth in the Australian Open semi-finals and took Jannik Sinner to four sets in the Wimbledon final.

Also aided by his first run to the Indian Wells semi-finals in March, Zverev now finds himself in first place in the calendar-year PIF ATP Race to Turin, a barometer of who is likely to finish the year No. 1.

The US Open was also a celebration of American tennis. Coco Gauff, the 2023 champion, and Jessica Pegula, the 2024 finalist, joined Rybakina and Sabalenka in a semi-final line-up that featured the top four women’s seeds.

While Shelton fell short of becoming the first U.S. men’s Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick in 2003, he did join three-time major champion Arthur Ashe and 1996 Wimbledon finalist MaliVai Washington as the only Black American men to reach a major final. He also claimed an epic fifth-set tie-break victory over defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a quarter-final that finished at 3:33 a.m., the latest finish in tournament history.

Frances Tiafoe fell to countryman Shelton after reaching the semi-finals for the third time. ‘Big Foe’ had earlier rallied from two sets down in the quarter-finals to defeat fellow American Alex Michelsen.

World No. 4 Shelton and No. 8 Tiafoe are both at career-high PIF ATP Rankings, with No. 10 Taylor Fritz giving the U.S. three men inside the Top 10. Shelton and Tiafoe both look highly likely to qualify for the year-end ATP Finals for the first time.

“I’m a late bloomer… it's an ongoing process for me,” said Shelton, the 2022 NCAA Singles Champion for the University of Florida. “I don't think I'm anywhere near the player that I want to be.”

America also basked in doubles glory. Taylor Townsend and Czech Katarina Siniakova, who triumphed in Tennis Paradise in March, completed the career Grand Slam as a team by defeating Americans Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery in the final. American Christian Harrison teamed with Briton Neil Skupski to win the men's doubles.

In the juniors, Marcel Latak became the first American boys' champion since Taylor Fritz in 2015, while Chukwumelije Clarke reached the girls' final in her first appearance at Flushing Meadows.