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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Marie Bouzkovavs
Elsa Jacquemot
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Marie Bouzkova to advance · locked 2026-08-28 06:15 UTCPrediction
Bouzková — with revenge as the working theme. Jacquemot beat her on these courts a year ago, 6-4 6-3 in the first round, one of 2025's quieter upsets; Bouzková answered in Miami this spring, 6-2 6-2, and arrives as the 25th seed off a 29–19 season while the Frenchwoman has slumped to 6–20. The trajectory since New York could not diverge harder: Bouzková's counterpunching machine has been winning ugly all year; Jacquemot has been losing close and then not-close. The Czech's style — nothing free, everything returned — is brutal against a struggling opponent's confidence. The 2025 result earns the caveat; the 2026 seasons overwhelm it. Bouzková in two.
The case for Marie Bouzkova
78% to winBouzková avenged New York emphatically in Miami (6-2 6-2), arrives seeded off a 29-win season, and plays the exact style — relentless depth, zero donations — that a confidence-starved opponent least wants. The 2025 upset came from a Jacquemot who no longer shows up on current evidence.
The case for Elsa Jacquemot
22% to winJacquemot has already beaten Bouzková at this tournament — same round, twelve months ago — and rediscovering that version of herself against the same opponent is as clean a reset button as a 6–20 season could ask for. Her shot-making ceiling is higher; Miami was a bad day, not a verdict.
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
Marie BouzkovaElsa JacquemotPlayer 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
- Jacquemot beat Bouzková in this tournament's first round last year — the head-to-head's opening chapter; Bouzková answered 6-2 6-2 in Miami.
- Bouzková's 29–19 season carries her 25th seeding; Jacquemot's 6–20 is among the most difficult years of any direct entrant.
- The rubber match repeats the venue of chapter one — same tournament, same round, reversed expectations.
Head to head
One–one, and the venue repeats: Jacquemot 6-4 6-3 in this tournament's first round last year; Bouzková 6-2 6-2 in Miami in March. New York hosts the decider of its own sequel.
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. This one profiles as a field-court match. (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 as a sequel with the billing reversed: last year Jacquemot ambushed Bouzková on these courts; this year the Czech returns seeded, in form, and holding the fresher head-to-head chapter. The winner meets Stearns or a qualifier in the Round of 64, in the quarter the seedings hand to Rybakina and Świątek. Redemption arcs in tennis are usually just form charts — Sunday tests whether this one is more. Sunday through Tuesday.
Marie BouzkovaElsa JacquemotRound of 128
Marie BouzkovaElsa JacquemotRound of 64