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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Emma Navarro vs Lois Boisson — 7-6(6) 6-7(1) 6-3
 Emma Navarro✓ | 7 | 61 | 6 |
 Lois Boisson | 66 | 7 | 3 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Rain stopped this one on Sunday night at 7-6(6), 4-2 and 15-30 on Boisson's serve, one of seven matches abandoned for the night. Boisson had led 3-1 with two breaks in the first set and lost the tiebreak 8-6; on the Monday resumption she broke Navarro serving for the match at 5-4, took the second-set tiebreak 7-1, and broke first in the decider before Navarro broke back and again at 4-3. She served better all afternoon and lost anyway: 15 aces to ten, 79% of her first-serve points to 70% — and 37% of her second-serve points to Navarro's 55%. Boisson has spent, by her own count, eighteen of the previous twenty-six months in rehabilitation, is playing on a protected ranking of 37 after falling from 34th in January to 294th in July, and had retired mid-match in Philadelphia six days earlier. She broke a racket behind Navarro as the American celebrated with the crowd. “It was really tough stopping at the point of the match we were at,” Navarro said of the overnight break. “All of a sudden it's like we come out tomorrow and we both have a clean slate.”
Emma NavarroRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128 with a home benchmark on the line: Navarro's 2024 semi-final made her a fixture of this tournament's American story, and her subdued season makes early efficiency the priority. Boisson — whose 2025 Roland-Garros run remains one of the sport's great out-of-nowhere fortnights — is the kind of rebuilding talent nobody wants early. The winner meets McNally or a qualifier in the Round of 64. Sunday through Tuesday.
What we know now
Court: Grandstand
Match length: 2:46
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
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.
Navarro. The 26th seed's 2024 semi-final here is the section's benchmark result, and her patient, error-light game remains the archetype for these courts even in a subdued 20–17 season. Boisson's ranking (No. 236) is a rebuild in progress — a 3–8 year with five career tour-level hard-court wins — and their only meeting, in Beijing last autumn, ended with the Frenchwoman retiring a set and a game down. The American's home crowd, superior fitness record and a matchup her defense controls make this the widest favorite's margin among the women's seed openers not involving the top three. Boisson's shot-making flashes will earn games; sustaining them across sets on this surface is another matter. Navarro in two.
The case for Emma Navarro
82% to winA 2024 semi-finalist at her home Slam against a No. 236 with five hard-court wins: Navarro's floor — clean returning, tireless legs, no cheap errors — is precisely the game that makes rebuilding opponents look further from home than they are. She also won the only meeting, and Boisson's retirement there is the fitness question this format re-asks.
The case for Lois Boisson
18% to winBoisson's peak shot-making — the heavy forehand that made her a Roland-Garros sensation — is genuinely top-tier when her body cooperates, and Navarro's pace-less game gives opponents time to swing. A free-hitting underdog with nothing to lose is the only species that regularly bites deep-thinking counterpunchers.
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: Emma Navarro to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A semi-finalist's floor at home against a No. 236 rebuild — the only meeting ended in retirement, and this format asks harder fitness questions.”
Locked 2026-08-28 05:25 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Emma NavarroLois BoissonPlayer 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
- Navarro's 2024 semi-final here is the deepest US Open run in this quarter's seed group — she opens its defense at home.
- Boisson, the surprise Roland-Garros semi-finalist of 2025, is rebuilding at No. 236 after an injury-hit stretch; her only previous US Open ended in last year's first round.
- Navarro won the only meeting — Beijing 2025, where Boisson retired trailing 6-2 1-0.
Head to head
Navarro leads 1–0 from Beijing last autumn — 6-2 1-0 before Boisson retired. Less a match than a medical note; the fitness question it left is Sunday's subtext.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Grandstand, 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.