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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Viktorija Golubic vs Diane Parry — 7-5 6-4
 Diane Parry✓ | 7 | 6 |
 Viktorija Golubic | 5 | 4 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
A rare all-one-handed-backhand first round, and the sixth straight win of the best fortnight of Parry's career — she had lifted her first tour title, the WTA 500 in Monterrey, two days earlier. Golubic led it 5-3 before Parry broke back at 5-4 and took the next two games for the set. The second was tighter: Parry broke for 3-2 without consolidating, Golubic came back from 2-4, and then served the match away to love, double-faulting on the first match point after an hour and forty-nine minutes. Parry took five of the six break points she earned; Golubic, 33 and into her ninth US Open main draw with one win in it, took three of eleven. Golubic had won both previous meetings. Parry, into the second round here for a third year running, plays the 16th seed Sorana Cirstea next.
Viktorija GolubicRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
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.
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.
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 — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Diane Parry to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The same variety toolkit with ten fewer years on it, and last year's third round here — craft ties break on legs.”
Locked 2026-08-28 05:25 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Viktorija GolubicDiane ParryPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
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.
Court & schedule: Court 9, 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.