US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Gabriela Knutson vs 
Eva Lys
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Eva Lys to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
Lys is ranked 98th with a second round here in 2025 and 99 career hard-court matches; Knutson is a 29-year-old qualifier ranked 184th whose Tennis Abstract career log does not resolve — the page is honest about that below rather than inventing numbers. On what is verifiable, Lys is 86 places higher and has been to this stage of this tournament before. Her 6–15 season is the one thing that keeps a qualifier interested. Lys in three.
The case for Gabriela Knutson
30% to winKnutson has three wins on these courts this week and is playing an opponent whose season is 6–15 — a losing year by a wide margin. A qualifier in rhythm against a player short of confidence is the standard first-round upset shape.
The case for Eva Lys
70% to winEighty-six ranking places, a second round here last year, and a 59–40 career hard-court record that is comfortably a winning one. Lys's season is poor but the level underneath it is top-100.
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.
Tale of the tape
Gabriela KnutsonEva LysPlayer 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.
The briefing
Storylines
- Knutson, 29, is into a US Open main draw through qualifying.
- Lys reached the second round here in 2025; her 6–15 season is the worst form of any unseeded direct entrant in this section.
- The winner runs into Mirra Andreeva or Janice Tjen in the second round.
Head to head
They have never met. Knutson's career match log does not resolve on Tennis Abstract, so no career hard-court split is published for her here rather than guessed at.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-28.
Watch: Opening-round coverage runs across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, including the whip-around channel that only exists in the early rounds. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
Court & schedule: Not yet assigned. Days one and two of the main draw are on the board; this match falls in the back half of the first round, and the US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before. (Official US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-28)
Weather: The forecast cooled since the draw: Sunday opens partly sunny near 80°F with a slight shower chance after 2 p.m., and a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms arrives with Sunday night. Monday is similar at 81°F, and the storm odds climb through Tuesday and Wednesday. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs; the field courts wait. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-28)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
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 Andreeva or Tjen in the Round of 64.
