Number one, and unreadable

Elena Rybakina beat the field at the US Open on Saturday to take the world number one ranking. The game is obvious. What drives it stays hidden, and she likes it that way.

“the Kazakh star at the summit of the women's game remains an enigmatic figure”

Gauff can't read her

Coco Gauff lost to Rybakina in the New York semi-finals and came away struck by how little she gave off.

“We're all feeling nerves and stuff. Now, how much of that she lets get to her, we don't know.”

One fist at Wimbledon

When she won her first Grand Slam in 2022, beating Ons Jabeur, there was no shout and no collapse on the grass. She raised a single clenched fist and walked to her chair.

“I'm going to have to teach her how to celebrate properly”

The blankness is on purpose

Rybakina says hiding emotion is a tactical decision, not a personality quirk. She does not want an opponent seeing anything go wrong for her.

“you just don't want to let the opponent also see your frustration when something is going wrong”

People close to her see it

The poker face works on strangers, not on friends. She says anyone who has known her long enough picks up the small shifts in her expression.

“They read even little changes in my face.”

The flag questions

Moscow-born, she chose to represent Kazakhstan in 2018 while ranked 175th. In the year Russian players were banned from Wimbledon, she was asked about that choice again and again.

“They believed in me. There is no more question about how I feel.”

Kids on the courts back home

She talks with pride about what her rise has done in Kazakhstan. Every city she returns to, she says, has more children turning up at tennis facilities.

“everything is possible if you believe, if you work hard”

She never planned this

Rybakina says she never imagined a pro career or these stages. Tennis was something she did after school, for fun, with friends.

“I was just enjoying playing tennis after school, hanging out with the friends.”

Three slams and a coach fight

She beat Sabalenka in January's Australian Open final for slam number two. In between, her on-off coach Stefano Vukov was suspended over alleged abusive conduct toward players, which he denied.

The snub in Riyadh

Angered by the Vukov suspension, she refused to pose with WTA chief Portia Archer after winning the Riyadh Masters in November 2025. Vukov is back in her corner now.

Cool as a cucumber

Fourteen titles, twice the season ace leader, and a much better baseline game, says Jessica Pegula. But Pegula thinks the real edge is that you get nothing off her.

“You're not really sure if she's upset or if she's excited or what it is.”