Rivalry is elevating women's game to a different sphere

A high-quality WTA Finals produced something of a surprise winner, writes Flo Clifford, but Elena Rybakina's return to the top of the sport is an indication that it's in rude health

- By Flo Clifford

Nearly three years ago, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina faced off in the final of the first major of the season. At the time, many thought this was the start of a new era in women's tennis, a kind of “Big Three” consisting of a trio of the most supreme ball-strikers in the game, the aforementioned pair and the then world No 1, Iga Swiatek.

It wasn't quite to be: Sabalenka fought back from a set down to win her first grand slam title and has since won another three to wrestle top spot off Swiatek. Rybakina, after the high of her 2022 Wimbledon final, slid around the top 10, briefly dropped out of it, and never quite challenged at the same level again.

Several twists and turns later, Rybakina is back at the top of the sport, but the landscape of women's tennis has shifted in that time. Almost three years on from that moment - something of a damp squib, a false dawn - women's tennis has shaken itself out and, it seems, finally established a defining hierarchy, just in time for the 2026 season.

And the big-hitting Kazakh is part of that. Her resurgence has been quintessentially Rybakina-like: no fuss, little fanfare, just a perfectly timed late-season run of form that catapulted her to the biggest payday in WTA history, celebrated with a trademark gentle fist pump and smile. No histrionics, although the moment was overshadowed somewhat by her refusal to pose for photos with WTA chief executive Portia Archer. next year’s main event, the major players manoeuvring themselves into position, battle lines being drawn, ahead of a grand showdown.