US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Magda Linette vs 
Francesca Jones
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Magda Linette to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
Linette is 34, ranked 78th, 19–18 this season with 409 career hard-court matches on record; Jones is a 104th-ranked qualifier who is 4–12 on the year. The Pole has been a major quarter-finalist and knows exactly how to win a scrappy first round; Jones has three qualifying wins and a 23–21 career hard record that is respectable but shallow. Linette in two or three.
The case for Magda Linette
68% to winFour hundred and nine career hard-court matches, a 19–18 season against a 4–12 one, and 26 ranking places. Linette wins ugly matches for a living, which is what a first round against a qualifier usually is.
The case for Francesca Jones
32% to winJones has the momentum of a qualifying run and Linette is 34 with a barely-winning season. If the match becomes a physical grind in the afternoon heat, the 25-year-old is the one who came through three matches this week to get here.
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
Magda LinetteFrancesca JonesPlayer 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
- Linette has 409 career hard-court matches on record — the most of anyone in this batch.
- Jones qualified for the second straight year; she lost in the first round here in 2025.
- Linette's third round here in 2020 is her best US Open run.
Head to head
They have never met.
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 Jovic or Frech in the Round of 64.
