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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Harriet Dart vs Peyton Stearns — 3-6 6-3 6-2
 Harriet Dart✓ | 3 | 6 | 6 |
 Peyton Stearns | 6 | 3 | 2 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Dart had four break points in the opening game, won none of them, and did not see another chance in the set. What turned it was Stearns's error count — 47 unforced errors against 40 winners — and two breaks conceded in the second. The third ran to three consecutive breaks before Dart held in the sixth game and took it on her fourth match point, 2 hours 24 minutes. Ranked 131st and through qualifying the hard way, three sets in all three rounds, she ends a nineteen-month wait for a main-draw win at a major; her last came at the 2025 Australian Open. "New York always feels like a home away from home," she said.
Harriet DartRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
The Round of 128 is the widest the net ever gets: 64 matches a draw, spread across three days, every seed in action and every qualifier playing the biggest match of the year. This half of the bracket filled in late — qualifying ran a day long after rain pushed the last round to Friday, so these names were still blank slots on draw night. First-round losers leave with $140,000. The winner draws Jacquemot or Bouzková in the Round of 64.
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.
The most interesting head-to-head in this batch: 1–1, and the two meetings were five years apart at the same tournament. Dart won US Open qualifying in 2021 6-3 4-6 6-3; Stearns won in Cincinnati this month, 6-1 7-6(6). Stearns is 54th and 21–18 this season with a fourth round here in 2023; Dart is a 131st-ranked qualifier, 7–8. The recent meeting is the one that counts. Stearns in two.
The case for Harriet Dart
33% to winDart has beaten Stearns before, at this tournament, and she arrives with three qualifying wins on these courts. Her career hard-court record (86–82) is a winning one where Stearns's is 53–59, and Cincinnati went to a tiebreak in the second set.
The case for Peyton Stearns
67% to winStearns won the most recent meeting three weeks ago, 6-1 7-6(6), is 77 ranking places higher, and reached the fourth round here in 2023. She has not spent the week playing qualifying, which over three sets in late-August New York is worth something.
Both cases written 2026-08-29, 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: Peyton Stearns to advance ✗ WRONG
“She won the meeting three weeks ago 6-1 7-6(6), and is 77 ranking places higher with fresher legs.”
Locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Harriet DartPeyton StearnsPlayer 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 2026-08-28.
Storylines
- They met three weeks ago in Cincinnati — Stearns won 6-1 7-6(6).
- Their other meeting was US Open qualifying in 2021, which Dart won in three.
- Stearns reached the fourth round here in 2023, her best major result.
Head to head
One apiece. Dart won US Open qualifying in 2021, 6-3 4-6 6-3; Stearns won at Cincinnati this month, 6-1 7-6(6).
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-28.
Court & schedule: Court 12, 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 2026-08-30)
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.