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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Amanda Anisimova vs Ashlyn Krueger — 6-1 6-3
 Amanda Anisimova✓ | 6 | 6 |
| Ashlyn Krueger | 1 | 3 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Anisimova turned 25 on the day and hit 25 winners, 14 of them off the backhand. She won 27 of the 50 points Krueger served — more than Krueger managed on her own serve — and Krueger held three of her eight service games; Anisimova also won a higher share of her second-serve points, 59%, than Krueger won of her first, 53%. Krueger earned eleven break points and took one. Seventy-two minutes on Armstrong in the day session, 11 of 13 at the net, and the crowd sang to her at the end. It is a quieter start than last year's, when she reached the final here two months after losing the Wimbledon final 6-0 6-0; she has not made a final all season against five in 2025, and reunited with her former coach Hendrik Vleeshouwers in late July. “I do get flooded with the memories of the final last year,” she had said before the tournament. On the day itself: “I'm getting old. I don't even look forward to my birthdays anymore.”
Amanda AnisimovaRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
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.
What we know now
Court: Louis Armstrong Stadium
Match length: 1:12
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
What I said beforehand
The preview, frozen before the first serve. Clearly dated, never rewritten — that's the deal that makes the pick worth anything.
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 — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Amanda Anisimova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The 2025 finalist's class, a 22–11 season, and a head-to-head win in the only meeting — flat-on-flat goes to the cleaner striker.”
Locked 2026-08-28 05:50 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Amanda AnisimovaAshlyn KruegerPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
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.
Court & schedule: Louis Armstrong Stadium, Monday 31 August. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before; this one is on the board. (Official US Open order of play, as of 2026-08-28)
Weather: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — was forecast at 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that could not be pushed back. The rain came in the morning and stopped before the final, which Ashe played with its roof open. It cleared from there: 15% overnight, 15% Monday, then dry and sunny. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.