US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Maria Sakkari vs 
Robin Montgomery
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Maria Sakkari to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
Sakkari is the 32nd seed and a 2021 semi-finalist here, 19–17 this season with 361 career hard-court matches; Montgomery is a 21-year-old left-handed American qualifier ranked 187th, 12–5 on the season. The form line is closer than the seeding — Montgomery has the better winning percentage this year — but the level and the venue history are not. Sakkari in three, and the left-handedness will make one of them awkward.
The case for Maria Sakkari
74% to winThirty-second seed, a US Open semi-finalist, and 361 career hard-court matches to Montgomery's 45. Sakkari's fitness in long rallies is a specific problem for a 21-year-old in a first-round three-setter.
The case for Robin Montgomery
26% to winMontgomery is 12–5 this season against Sakkari's 19–17, left-handed, American, and has three qualifying wins on these courts. Sakkari's ranking has slid to 33rd for a reason, and a seeded player defending expectation is exactly what a home qualifier wants to meet.
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
Maria SakkariRobin MontgomeryPlayer 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
- Sakkari reached the semi-finals here in 2021, her best Grand Slam result.
- Montgomery, 21, is a left-handed American through qualifying — and 12–5 on the season.
- Montgomery's winning percentage this year is better than the seed's.
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 Starodubtseva or Seidel in the Round of 64.
