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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Emma Navarrovs
Lois Boisson
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Emma Navarro to advance · locked 2026-08-28 05:25 UTCPrediction
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, quoted to a decimal because false precision is funnier — and tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
Tale of the tape
Emma NavarroLois BoissonPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-27.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
The briefing
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.
Watch: Opening-round coverage starts Sunday at 11 a.m. ET across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, including a whip-around channel for the early rounds. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
Court & schedule: Not yet assigned — the US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before, so day-one courts land the night of 29 August. A home seed profiles for the Grandstand or a featured field court. (US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-27)
Weather: The opening window looks kind: mostly sunny and 85–86°F Sunday and Monday, with thunderstorm chances only creeping in on Tuesday. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs if the sky turns; the field courts wait it out. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-27)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
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.
Emma NavarroLois BoissonRound of 128
Emma NavarroLois BoissonRound of 64