US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Mananchaya Sawangkaewvs
Panna Udvardy
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Mananchaya Sawangkaew to advance · locked 2026-08-28 05:00 UTCPrediction
Sawangkaew. The Thai 24-year-old stepped into the draw when Victoria Mboko's knee withdrew her, and she arrives in the field's quietest good form — 8–4 across a limited season, with a 26–17 career hard-court record that comfortably outclasses Udvardy's 11–32. The Hungarian's game was built on clay and it shows: her heavy, rolling forehand needs time this surface refuses to grant, and her 2026 (17–19) has been a season of near-misses. First meeting, low profile, real stakes — a first US Open main-draw win for either. The surface splits decide coin-flips like this more reliably than any other stat on the sheet. Sawangkaew in two, maybe dropping a loose middle stretch.
The case for Mananchaya Sawangkaew
63% to winSawangkaew's hard-court efficiency (26–17) is the best-kept secret in this corner of the draw, her light schedule means fresh legs, and her flat, compact hitting suits the court far better than her opponent's topspin. Late entry, zero pressure, better surface fit: the quiet-upset trifecta, except she may not even be the underdog.
The case for Panna Udvardy
37% to winUdvardy has played nearly a full season against tour fields (17–19) while Sawangkaew has played twelve matches — rhythm is real, and the Hungarian owns more of it. Her rolling topspin can push flat hitters off their timing, and a first-Slam-win opportunity concentrates the mind of a 27-year-old who knows how few of these chances remain.
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
Mananchaya SawangkaewPanna UdvardyPlayer 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
- Sawangkaew entered the draw when 15th-ranked Victoria Mboko withdrew with the knee injury she suffered before Wimbledon.
- Udvardy's 11–32 career hard-court record is among the thinnest surface lines in the women's field — her career has run on clay.
- First meeting, and a first US Open main-draw win awaits the winner; neither has one.
Head to head
Never met — an ITF-circuit generation apart in geography, brought together by a withdrawal and a draw sheet.
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. This one profiles as a field-court match. (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 in the draw's understory: a withdrawal (Mboko's knee) opened the door for Sawangkaew, and Udvardy is the only thing between her and a career-first US Open win. The winner meets Zhang or Fernandez in the Round of 64 — a section that rewards surviving quietly while the quarter's seeds make noise elsewhere. Sunday through Tuesday; $140,000 to the loser, a career milestone to the winner.
