Two early exits in Beijing and Wuhan had raised a few eyebrows about the new world No. 1. Elena Rybakina answered them in China’s port city of Ningbo, where she needed just 76 minutes to beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez by a double 6-2 scoreline to retain the WTA 500 title. It was her first trophy since she overtook Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the rankings after the US Open.
Fernandez, the world No. 30 who reached the New York final as a teenager in 2021, had no answer. Rybakina broke twice in each set, never dropped serve, saved the four chances Fernandez carved out and sealed the trophy with a forehand on match point number one.
The statistics underline a remarkable season. Ningbo adds to earlier wins in Melbourne, at the Stuttgart indoor event and in New York, making four titles, the most of any woman in 2026, and her 53 match wins also lead the tour. She is now 8-0 at the event, has, remarkably, never before retained a title anywhere and has 15 titles overall. Of her past 15 finals she has won 11.
The Kazakh called the city a “special place” afterwards, adding that her level had risen with every round. She admitted she used to get very upset about losing finals, and was simply glad that things were now going her way.
On the men’s side, Daniil Medvedev also repeated as champion, recovering from a lost first-set tiebreak to beat Nikoloz Basilashvili in Almaty and keep his hopes alive for the ATP Finals in Turin. Rybakina heads to Tokyo next, then to the season-ending WTA Finals in Indian Wells, which begin on November 8.
