US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Nikola Bartunkova vs Mayar Sherif — 6-1 6-2
 Nikola Bartunkova✓ | 6 | 6 |
 Mayar Sherif | 1 | 2 |
Final · Wednesday, September 2, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Bartunkova's first US Open main-draw match took two days. The 20-year-old Czech, ranked 251st a year ago and 34th now, was at the site from 10.30am on Tuesday, waited all day, was switched to another court at half an hour's notice, then had play stopped by rain with the opening set banked 6-1. Bed at 1am, up at 8.15, back on court at 2pm — and about half an hour was all she needed on Wednesday, taking five games in a row from 1-2 down in the second set. Sherif, the world No. 52, never earned a break point, served five double faults to Bartunkova's one and was outhit 17 winners to seven. The friction was verbal. “She complained I was scraping my feet, when shoe noise is a normal thing. She wanted to get into my head,” Bartunkova said, adding that Tuesday had been far tenser than Wednesday.
Nikola BartunkovaRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128 as a generational and geographic crossroads: the Czech pipeline's newest product against Egyptian tennis's founding professional. Bartůňková's debut carries the quiet expectation her country's season has created — a Wimbledon champion, a Wimbledon finalist, and now the next cohort arriving. The winner meets Ostapenko or Maria in the Round of 64, in Andreeva's quarter of the bracket. Sunday through Tuesday.
What we know now
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.
Bartůňková. The 20-year-old Czech's first US Open comes at No. 38 off a 24–15 season — another product of the country's apparently inexhaustible production line — and the surface splits settle most of the argument: she is 21–15 on hard courts; Sherif, the Egyptian trailblazer, is 22–58, with a game whose heavy topspin was made for Cairo clay and pays a steep import tax in New York. Sherif's 13–7 season is deceptively good, but nearly all of it came on dirt. First meeting. The veteran's strength and spin can make the first hour physical; over two-plus sets the Czech's flatter, earlier hitting on a quick court is the sustainable pattern. Bartůňková in two.
The case for Nikola Bartunkova
72% to winBartůňková is the classic Czech export: clean technique, flat pace, and a 24-win season at 20 that has her knocking on the seedings. The surface gap is decisive on paper — a winning hard-court record against one 36 matches underwater — and debut nerves are cheaper against an opponent who also rarely wins here.
The case for Mayar Sherif
28% to winSherif's physicality is real on any surface, her 13–7 season shows a player in form, and a 20-year-old at her first US Open is exactly the opponent a 30-year-old pioneer with nothing to prove enjoys dismantling. Her topspin's height bothers flat hitters when the heat slows the court — Sunday is forecast warm.
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: Nikola Bartunkova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The surface splits — 21–15 against 22–58 — and a 24-win season at 20; the import tax on clay games is due in New York.”
Locked 2026-08-28 05:50 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Nikola BartunkovaMayar SherifPlayer 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
- Bartůňková, 20, makes her US Open debut at No. 38 — the latest of the draw's remarkable Czech cohort, which includes the reigning Wimbledon champion and finalist.
- Sherif remains the trailblazer of Egyptian tennis — the first Egyptian woman to win Grand Slam main-draw matches — but her 22–58 career hard-court record maps her challenge here.
- First meeting; the winner faces 30th-seeded Ostapenko or the 39-year-old Maria in the Round of 64.
Head to head
Never met — a decade of age and a continent of surface preference apart. Flat pace against heavy spin, decided by court speed.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Court 15, Wednesday 2 September. 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 2026-09-02)
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.