US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Naomi Osaka vs Anastasia Zakharova — 7-6(6) 7-6(3)
 Naomi Osaka✓ | 7 | 7 |
| Anastasia Zakharova | 66 | 63 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Two tiebreaks, two hours two minutes, and a finish around half past midnight. Osaka won the first three games on Ashe and led 5-2 before Zakharova, ranked 101st and playing her for the first time, broke her serving for the set at 5-3; they traded breaks again and the tiebreak went 8-6. The second was closer still. Osaka broke from 0-40 down in the fifth game, Zakharova levelled at 5-5 on the back of a sixteen-shot rally and served to lead 6-5, and Osaka — having thrown her racquet a game earlier — won four points in a row, the last of them a 120 mph serve, to force a second tiebreak and took it 7-3. Ten of her eleven aces came in that set, one of them on match point; Zakharova hit none all night. It is a tenth Grand Slam win of 2026, her first double-figure major season since 2019, and a ninth clearing of the US Open first round in ten. She walked on in a hooded tunic panelled with press clippings from her own past tournaments, changing into an Allen Iverson-inspired kit to play. "I have no idea what time it is. Thanks for staying," she told the crowd. "I haven't played since Toronto, so I was a little rusty." Katerina Siniakova is next.
Naomi OsakaRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128, and the tournament's twice-crowned prodigal opens another chapter: Osaka's 2018 and 2020 titles both ran through Ashe's loudest nights, and her 13th seeding undersells a 25–11 season that has felt increasingly like the real thing. The bracket's promise sits one round deep in the second week — Rybakina, the No. 2 seed, projected for the Round of 16. First, a professional's assignment against Zakharova. Sunday through Tuesday.
What we know now
Court: Arthur Ashe Stadium
Match length: 2:02
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.
Osaka. The two-time champion here — 2018 and 2020, the titles that anchored her four majors — arrives seeded 13th with a 25–11 season that represents her most sustained tennis since the comeback began, and this tournament has always been the one where her first-strike game needs no translation. Zakharova at No. 101 is having a career year by volume (20–19) and her flat, compact hitting keeps scoreboards honest, but she creates offense one notch below the pace Osaka absorbs comfortably, and first meetings against the draw's biggest servers are unkind places to learn. The wobble scenario is known — Osaka's mid-match error clusters when rhythm breaks — and Zakharova is steady enough to collect one set from it. Not two. Osaka in three at most.
The case for Naomi Osaka
78% to winTwo titles on this court, four majors, a 25–11 season and a serve that remains among the sport's most efficient: Osaka's New York floor is the highest of any seed in this section. When her first strike lands at rhythm, there is no counterplan in Zakharova's game — only resistance.
The case for Anastasia Zakharova
22% to winZakharova's 20-win season is built on refusing cheap errors, and Osaka's comeback years have shown exactly one repeatable vulnerability: rhythm breaks, error clusters, momentum spirals. Stay level to 4-4 in each set and the pressure of a former champion's expectations does the heavy lifting.
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: Naomi Osaka to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Two titles on this court and the section's biggest serve — the comeback's best season meets its friendliest venue.”
Locked 2026-08-28 06:40 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Naomi OsakaAnastasia ZakharovaPlayer 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
- Osaka won this title in 2018 and 2020 — she opens as the 13th seed with her best sustained season since returning to the tour.
- The seedings point this section at a heavyweight Round of 16: Osaka against second-seeded Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion.
- Zakharova, at No. 101, is playing her second US Open main draw — her first look at a former champion on the sport's biggest court.
Head to head
Never met — Osaka's championship era and Zakharova's climb never shared a court. The first serve exchange will say most of what needs saying.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Arthur Ashe Stadium, Monday 31 August in the night session. 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 2026-08-28)
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.