Elena Rybakina has loved an excellent season on the WTA Tour this yr.
Following an detached 2025 marketing campaign, Rybakina loved the best season of her profession in 2026, successful two Grand Slam titles and changing into the world quantity one for the first time. The Kazakh clinched the Australian Open crown at the prime of the yr, before triumphing at the US Open in September. With her run in New York, she leapfrogged former quantity one Aryna Sabalenka in the rankings.
Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images
Elena Rybakina’s bid to go back-to-back at the WTA Finals
Following her US Open victory, Rybakina suffered a first-round exit at the China Open before withdrawing from the last WTA 1000 event of the season in Wuhan. With a forgettable Asian swing in the rearview mirror, the 27-year-old will now set her sights on the WTA Finals, where she is the defending champion.
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Rybakina won the WTA Finals for the first time at the back finish of last season by beating prime seed Sabalenka in the last. She won all of her group stage matches at the year-end event, including victories over Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova.
Much like the males’s US Open, the WTA Finals has proved to be a troublesome event to win in consecutive seasons. Rybakina is trying to become the first participant to go back-to-back at the occasion since Serena Williams in 2014.
Williams accomplished a three-peat that yr, but since then there has been a totally different winner each and every season.
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2015 – Agnieszka Radwanska
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2016 – Dominika Cibulkova
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2017 – Caroline Wozniacki
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2020 – No competitors due to COVID-19 pandemic
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2021 – Garbine Muguruza
Rybakina has made three appearances at the WTA Finals in her profession, and lost in the spherical robin stage in her first two campaigns. With her triumph last yr, she grew to become the first Kazakhstani participant and first participant representing an Asian nation to win the WTA Finals.
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Rybakina is one of six gamers presently certified for the 2026 WTA Finals, along with Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff and Linda Noskova. Swiatek, Elina Svitolina, Karolina Muchova and Marta Kostyuk are all competing for the last two spots.
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