The 17th face-to-face meeting of Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina differed from the others in one very specific way. Last Monday, the two met for the first time as the top two players on tour, as Rybakina rose to world No. 2 for the first time.
Even more unusually, they meet in the semifinals on Thursday night in Miami, marking the first time since 1987 that the world’s No. 1 and No. 2 players have met before the final of a WTA Tour event (excluding WTA Finals and Grand Slams).
This is the product of a statistical anomaly, as Rybakina’s rise to second place came after seeding a few days ago.
None of that seemed to matter as the WTA Tour’s top tournament took center stage inside Hard Rock Stadium with a spot in the finals at stake. This is the third meeting between Sabalenka and Rybakina in three months. In the previous two meetings, Rybakina won the Australian Open final, while Sabalenka took revenge in Indian Wells 11 days ago. She saved a championship point in the final set tiebreaker.
This time the game is more direct. Sabalenka won 6-4, 6-3, defeating Rybakina in straight sets for the second time in her career. Sabalenka has now reached the finals of her first four WTA events of the season, making her the fourth player since 2000 to achieve the feat, joining Martina Hingis (2001), Serena Williams (2003) and Victoria Azarenka (2012).
“I’m very happy to have passed,” she said. “I really love our rivalry and she’s an incredible player.
“I thought I did everything right and she played great, but I thought I put too much pressure on her.”
The two sides played very stalemate from the beginning, and both sides broke serve alternately in the fourth and fifth games. She then maintained control of the match before Rybakina was forced to hold serve. After strong service games earlier, the world No. 2 faltered, winning just one point, while Sabalenka stormed into the last four and broke serve.
The defending champion locked the score at 6-4 with a forehand volley in 37 minutes.
In the second set, the four-time Grand Slam champion continued her momentum, resolving her fourth break point in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. She solidified a 3-0 lead and soon extended it to 4-0.
Rybakina tried to attack at the last moment, chasing the score to 4-2 and saving a match point at 2-5, but Sabalenka refused to give in and finally sealed the victory, becoming the first female player since Serena Williams in 2003 to go 11 consecutive games in Miami without dropping a set.
singles in doubles
Sabalenka will compete for the title against Coco Gauff on Saturday as she seeks to become just the fifth woman in history to complete the Sunshine Double. Only Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka and Iga Swiatek have achieved this feat.
Earlier on Thursday, Gauff defeated Karolina Muchova 6-1, 6-1 to reach her first Miami final.
Sabalenka and Gauff have met 12 times before, with Sabalenka winning two of the three games in 2025. However, Gauff won the biggest meeting of the season, the American’s dramatic three-set victory in last year’s French Open final. Gauff also won two of the three previous finals.
