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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Oleksandra Oliynykova vs Reese Brantmeier — 6-4 6-4
 Oleksandra Oliynykova✓ | 6 | 6 |
 Reese Brantmeier | 4 | 4 |
Final · Tuesday, September 1, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Ten breaks of serve in twenty games. Oliynykova led 5-2 in the first, was pulled back to 5-4, and took the set on return rather than serving it out; in the second she went a break down twice before winning the last three games. Brantmeier hit 23 winners to her 12 and came to the net 31 times to her 11, and lost it on 47 unforced errors to 27. It was only the American's second tour-level match. The reigning NCAA singles champion and a North Carolina graduate, she won the USTA's American Collegiate Player wild-card playoff in June, and was lead plaintiff in the class action against the NCAA, settled this year, that ended the rule barring college athletes from taking prize money before enrolment. Oliynykova left Ukraine for Croatia as a child, switched back to representing Ukraine in 2022, and is one of the few Ukrainian professionals still training at home; her father serves in the armed forces. This was her first US Open main draw — she lost in qualifying a year ago — and it made her the fourth Ukrainian into the second round. Rain held the outside courts until mid-afternoon.
Oleksandra OliynykovaRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128 in the draw's proving-ground corner: a top-50 debutante whose ranking speaks Spanish clay, against a home wildcard whose season is just restarting. The stakes are real precisely because they're small — a first US Open win for either, $140,000 for the loser, and a Round of 64 slot in Gauff's quarter for the survivor. 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.
Oliynykova, with an asterisk the ranking hides. Her No. 46 was built almost entirely on clay — the career hard-court line reads 4–5, and this is her first US Open — so the 380-place gap to Brantmeier overstates the surface gap considerably. Still, the American wildcard's own case is thin: 0–2 this season, ranked No. 425, working her way back to match fitness. Oliynykova's 18–14 season is real tennis against real fields, and even a clay-built game with her ball weight beats an opponent short on matches. The home crowd and the wildcard's low-stakes freedom are worth a set at most. Oliynykova in three — this is the round's most honest 'somebody has to win' fixture.
The case for Oleksandra Oliynykova
64% to winEighteen wins against tour fields this season, a top-50 ranking, and the physical edge of a player in rhythm: whatever the surface inexperience, Oliynykova has beaten a class of opponent Brantmeier hasn't faced this year. The wildcard's 0–2 season is the loudest number on the sheet.
The case for Reese Brantmeier
36% to winBrantmeier is at home, on the surface she grew up on, against a top-50 player who has won four tour-level hard-court matches in her life — this is the rare 425-versus-46 pairing where the surface flips the ranking gap. A wildcard with nothing to lose and a supportive crowd has won stranger matches here.
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: Oleksandra Oliynykova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Eighteen tour-level wins this season against zero — the surface question is real, but match fitness is the bigger one.”
Locked 2026-08-28 06:15 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Oleksandra OliynykovaReese BrantmeierPlayer 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
- Oliynykova's No. 46 ranking rests on clay: her career tour-level hard-court record is 4–5, and this is her US Open debut.
- Brantmeier, the home wildcard at No. 425, is rebuilding her season — Sunday is her first Slam main-draw match of the year.
- First meeting; the winner draws Eala or a qualifier in the Round of 64.
Head to head
Never met — a Ukrainian clay specialist and an American rebuilding project, matched by a draw with a sense of symmetry: both are proving grounds cases.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Court 15, Tuesday 1 September. 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 2026-09-01)
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.