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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Aoi Ito vs Oksana Selekhmeteva — 6-2 6-4
 Oksana Selekhmeteva✓ | 6 | 6 |
 Aoi Ito | 2 | 4 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Both sets ran to the same shape: a double break to 4-0, then a stretch of resistance that arrived too late. Ito, back from a lumbar injury on a protected ranking and in her first US Open main draw, won 23% of her second-serve points and earned five break points all match, taking one of them in the sixth game of the second set. Selekhmeteva, a left-hander who took Spanish nationality only months ago, hit 21 winners to twelve and won 70 points to 57 in 1 hour 22 minutes. It is her first US Open main-draw win and her first at a major on a hard court.
Aoi ItoRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128 at the draw's quiet end: two twenty-somethings playing for a first US Open win and the Round of 64 audience that comes with it — likely against a two-time major champion, with Krejčíková's match next door. For Ito, a debut and a ranking reset; for Selekhmeteva, the season's consolidation test. The first round pays its losers $140,000, women's and men's draws alike — call it the tour's most meaningful consolation prize. 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.
Selekhmeteva. The 23-year-old lefty at No. 93 has spent the season consolidating a top-100 breakthrough, and her flat, angle-hunting game holds a clear edge over Ito's improvised, spin-heavy style on a court this quick. Ito's ranking (No. 369) reflects a 4–11 season interrupted rather than a talent ceiling — her hand skills are real and her 23–19 career hard-court record beats her opponent's on percentage — but match sharpness is the currency of first rounds, and Selekhmeteva has three times the 2026 court time. First meeting, both playing for the biggest ranking payday of their seasons. The lefty's consistency should bank it in two competitive sets.
The case for Aoi Ito
35% to winIto's unorthodox game — heavy slice, sudden pace changes, angles nobody practices against — is exactly the profile that ambushes conventional opponents in round one. Her career hard-court record is a winning one, the ranking is an artifact of a stop-start season, and a first US Open brings zero scar tissue to the occasion.
The case for Oksana Selekhmeteva
65% to winSelekhmeteva has played a full season at this level and it shows in the ledger: 13 wins against tour fields, a lefty serve that opens the court, and the patience to let an improviser miss. Match play beats mystery in best-of-three tennis, and she holds a season's worth more of it.
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: Oksana Selekhmeteva to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Triple the season's match play and the steadier game — mystery loses to mileage in round one.”
Locked 2026-08-28 04:35 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Aoi ItoOksana SelekhmetevaPlayer 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
- Both are chasing a first US Open main-draw win — Ito on debut, Selekhmeteva after a first-round exit last year.
- Ito's No. 369 ranking is the second-lowest among the women's resolved matchups — her 4–11 season hides a winning career hard-court record.
- First meeting; the winner draws 27th-seeded Barbora Krejčíková or Rakhimova in the Round of 64.
Head to head
Never met — two players from the same generation whose paths ran through different circuits until this week.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Court 15, 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.