Flushing Meadows spends most of a fortnight deciding a title. This year it also decides who runs the women's game: the WTA's No. 1 ranking is being settled inside the last four days of the tournament, and the player currently holding it cannot keep it by playing well.
Aryna Sabalenka arrived in New York as world No. 1 and two-time defending champion, and the arithmetic gives her exactly one way out — win it a third time. Everything else hands the ranking to Elena Rybakina, who beat Naomi Osaka 6-1, 6-4 on Monday to make the quarter-finals. Reach the semi-finals and Rybakina is No. 1 outright. Lose before that and she still takes it, provided none of Sabalenka, Coco Gauff or Jessica Pegula lifts the trophy.
"Of course I want it, I don't know anyone who wouldn't wish this," Rybakina said of the top ranking.
Her quarter-final on Wednesday is against Zheng Qinwen, who came through qualifying after elbow surgery and then beat Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-3 — the first qualifier in the New York last eight since Emma Raducanu won the whole thing in 2021. Gauff, past Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-4, is still in the other half with a route of her own to the top spot.
Source
Original summary by Proventier.