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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Amanda AnisimovavsAshlyn Krueger
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Amanda Anisimova to advance · locked 2026-08-28 05:50 UTCPrediction
Anisimova. Twelve months ago she played the final here — the run that re-established her as one of the sport's cleanest ball-strikers — and she opens its defense as the 10th seed with a 22–11 season and a head-to-head win over Krueger already banked. The all-American pairing is meaner than the seedings suggest: Krueger's serve-forward power game made the third round here in 2024 and her 17–14 season is solid, but she creates offense the way Anisimova absorbs it — early pace, minimal margin — and the seed does exactly that better, off both wings, with the field's flattest backhand. Defending finalist points is its own psychology; Anisimova has spent a career being written off and returning heavier. Anisimova in two, with tiebreak risk.
The case for Amanda Anisimova
73% to winAnisimova's 2025 final here certified the ceiling; her 22–11 season and 123–75 hard-court record certify the floor. She won the only meeting, her return takes Krueger's serve early, and flat-on-flat exchanges favor whoever hits cleaner — which has been her, against nearly everyone, for a year.
The case for Ashlyn Krueger
27% to winKrueger's power is real — a third round here in 2024 and a serve that wins cheap points in bunches — and Anisimova carries the heaviest points defense in the women's draw outside the top seeds. All-American first-rounders run on nerves, and the pressure gradient tilts entirely toward the finalist.
Both cases written 2026-08-28, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine, quoted to a decimal because false precision is funnier — and tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
Tale of the tape
Amanda AnisimovaAshlyn KruegerPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-27.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
The briefing
Storylines
- Anisimova opens the defense of last year's runner-up points — she lost the 2025 final to Sabalenka, the deepest US Open run of her career.
- The all-American pairing repeats a 2022 meeting: Anisimova won 6-2 7-6(5) in San Jose — the only prior match.
- Krueger's 2024 third round here is her Slam best; a win Sunday would be the biggest of her career by ranking.
Head to head
Anisimova leads 1–0 from San Jose 2022 — 6-2 7-6(5), a match whose flat-pace duel is the template for Sunday, four years heavier on both sides.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Watch: Opening-round coverage starts Sunday at 11 a.m. ET across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, including a whip-around channel for the early rounds. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
Court & schedule: Not yet assigned — the US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before, so day-one courts land the night of 29 August. Last year's finalist profiles for Ashe or Armstrong. (US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-27)
Weather: The opening window looks kind: mostly sunny and 85–86°F Sunday and Monday, with thunderstorm chances only creeping in on Tuesday. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs if the sky turns; the field courts wait it out. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-27)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
Round of 128, and last year's runner-up returns to the scene: Anisimova's 2025 final — the fortnight that ended in Sabalenka's hands — left her carrying one of the draw's heaviest points defenses, and the tournament greeted her with a compatriot who hits nearly as flat and nearly as hard. The winner probably meets the teenage debutant Tagger next. In a quarter this open, the finalist's floor is the thing to watch. Sunday through Tuesday.
