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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 128
Venus Williams vs Sofia Kenin — 6-2 7-6(6)
 Sofia Kenin✓ | 6 | 7 |
| Venus Williams | 2 | 66 |
Final · Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
They did not get on court until 12:13 a.m. — the latest start in US Open history, six minutes past the record Sabalenka and Alexandrova set in 2024 — because Djokovic's four-and-a-half-hour defeat was still running on the same court. It ended at 2:01 a.m., the latest a first-round match has ever finished here. Kenin took the opening set in 32 minutes; Williams, 46 and playing her 26th US Open, came back from 4-2 down in the second, forced a tiebreak, had set points in it and lost it 8-6, the last ball into the net. She won ten of her thirteen trips to the net and nine fewer points than Kenin overall. It is her fourteenth singles defeat in a row, and she would not be drawn afterwards on whether it was the last of them; the doubles with Serena is still to come this week.
Venus WilliamsRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128, and the draw's most time-bending fixture: Venus Williams — champion here in 2000 and 2001 — against Sofia Kenin, who was a toddler when the first of those titles was won. Two American major champions, two wildcards, one first round, with third-seeded Pegula waiting for the survivor. Whatever the scoreboard says, this is the session the grounds will orbit. Sunday through Tuesday.
What we know now
Court: Arthur Ashe Stadium
Match length: 1:47
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.
Kenin — with every sentimental fiber voting the other way. This is the first round's most remarkable pairing: two American major champions, both on wildcards, separated by nineteen years. Venus at 46 is playing her tournament — the one she first won in 2000, half the field's lifetimes ago — but her season is 0–11, and best-of-three tennis is unsparing about match fitness. Kenin's own year is grim (6–19) and her 2020 Australian Open peak feels a career away; still, at 27 she wins the physical exchanges, and her flat, early ball-striking gives the legend no time she doesn't earn. If Venus's serve arrives — the one shot age has taxed least — the Ashe crowd will make this unforgettable for a set. Across three, Kenin's legs settle it. Kenin in two tight sets, or the sentimental result of the year.
The case for Venus Williams
27% to winVenus has won this tournament twice and has spent three decades converting New York noise into service winners — the serve remains genuinely dangerous, and Kenin's 6–19 season plus a career-long vulnerability to power gives the 46-year-old a real corridor. Nobody in the draw handles occasion better; this is the occasion.
The case for Sofia Kenin
73% to winKenin is a major champion in her prime years facing a legend giving away nineteen of them; her return game — the sharpest part of her 2020 peak — attacks the second serve Venus must eventually show. The season records are both poor, but 6–19 against tour fields and 0–11 are different kinds of poor. Fitness, movement and the last five games all belong to the younger champion.
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: Sofia Kenin to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Nineteen years and every fitness metric — the serve keeps Venus in sets; the third hour belongs to 27.”
Locked 2026-08-28 05:00 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Venus WilliamsSofia KeninPlayer 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
- Venus Williams, 46, plays on a wildcard at the tournament she won in 2000 and 2001 — the oldest woman in this year's field by a dozen years.
- Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, is also on a wildcard — the first-round pairing of two American major champions is the women's draw's headline oddity.
- The winner faces third-seeded Jessica Pegula or Ruse in the Round of 64 — an American collision guaranteed either way.
Head to head
Never met — nineteen years apart in age, they shared a tour for a decade without a draw ever crossing them. It took two wildcards and one draw ceremony to arrange it.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Arthur Ashe Stadium, Sunday 30 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.