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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Viktorija Golubicvs
Diane Parry
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Diane Parry to advance · locked 2026-08-28 05:25 UTCPrediction
Parry, against the head-to-head and the age gap's conventional wisdom. Golubic won their only meeting — Cluj 2022, two tight sets — and at 33 her single-handed-backhand craft remains among the tour's most watchable puzzles. But the Frenchwoman at 23 is the one trending: a 19–16 season against Golubic's 16–15 near-mirror, a third round HERE last year that outranks the Swiss veteran's second, and a variety-based game (slice, shape, net instinct) that matches Golubic's own tricks with younger legs behind them. This is craft against craft; the differential is recovery speed between points and rounds. Parry in three, with both players making the highlight reel.
The case for Viktorija Golubic
44% to winGolubic won the only meeting, her one-handed backhand disrupts young ball-strikers who never practice against it, and her 146–127 hard-court record triples Parry's surface mileage. Veterans with variety age gracefully in best-of-three; nothing about a near-.500 season changes her floor.
The case for Diane Parry
56% to winParry made the third round here twelve months ago, plays the same variety game ten years younger, and has spent the season beating players of exactly Golubic's tier. The Swiss won Cluj in 2022 against a teenager; the 2026 version returns serve better and wins the long third sets.
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
Viktorija GolubicDiane ParryPlayer 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
- A rare all-variety matchup: one-handed backhands, slice, and net play from both sides — the section's throwback ticket.
- Parry's 2025 third round here outranks Golubic's US Open best; the Swiss won their only prior meeting, in Cluj 2022.
- The winner draws 16th-seeded Sorana Cîrstea — the draw's oldest seed, having a career year at 36 — or Grabher in the Round of 64.
Head to head
Golubic leads 1–0 from Cluj-Napoca 2022 — 7-5 7-6(6), two sets settled by a handful of points, against a 19-year-old Parry. The rematch arrives with the age advantage meaning something different.
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 for the connoisseurs: two of the tour's most complete variety games, a decade apart in age, playing for the right to test the draw's most improbable seed — Cîrstea, 36 and having the season of her life, likely waits in the Round of 64. Golubic against Parry is the kind of match the outer courts exist for; whoever wins it will have earned the bigger stage. Sunday through Tuesday.
