Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in Saturday's US Open final to win her third Grand Slam title, and the trophy that landed in her hands came from someone who knew exactly what that walk feels like.

Maria Sharapova, retired since 2020 and now 39, stepped onto Arthur Ashe Stadium to present the championship trophy herself. She wasn't there by accident. Sharapova won this same tournament in 2006, at 19, beating Justine Henin in the final. Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of that win to the day, and the US Open built the ceremony around it.

Rybakina, 27, had just come off a three-set battle against Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion who was chasing a third straight title in New York. Sabalenka took the second set after dropping the first, but Rybakina closed it out 6-2 to seal the match. Fireworks went off inside the stadium as she lifted the trophy over her head, with Sharapova standing right beside her.

The pairing wasn't just symbolic scheduling. Both women have now won three Grand Slam singles titles apiece, and both did it with the same flat, heavy hitting that tends to shorten rallies rather than extend them. Rybakina already had Wimbledon 2022 on her résumé, and she added the Australian Open earlier this year, also against Sabalenka in the final. New York was the one major that had eluded her. She's now missing only the French Open to complete a career Grand Slam, a distinction Sharapova herself achieved in 2012 when she won Roland Garros to go with her Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open titles.

Sharapova's own résumé needs no introduction to anyone who followed the sport through the 2000s and 2010s. Five majors, 36 WTA singles titles, a stretch at world No.1, and an induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2025 that formalised what most people already knew about where she ranks among her generation. Since stepping away from competition, she's kept a foot in the sport through business ventures and media work, including a podcast called Pretty Tough with Maria Sharapova.

What made Saturday land the way it did wasn't just the trophy handoff. It was two players separated by two decades, one handing the other the exact same piece of silverware on the exact same court where she'd once lifted it herself. Rybakina, for her part, also climbs to world No.1 off this win, adding another parallel to a night that was already stacked with them.

The French Open in the spring is now the obvious next storyline. Rybakina has the Wimbledon and hard-court titles. Clay is what stands between her and the same career sweep Sharapova completed fourteen years ago on that very surface.