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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Amanda Anisimova vs 
Lilli Tagger
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Amanda Anisimova to advance · locked 2026-08-31 20:50 UTCPrediction
Anisimova spent her 25th birthday hitting 25 winners and 72 minutes on court, which is the shortest women's match of the day and the least stressed. It was not entirely comfortable — Ashlyn Krueger earned eleven break points and took one — but 11 of 13 at the net and five breaks from nine chances is a finalist's opener. Tagger is 18, playing her first US Open, and beat Tamara Korpatsch 6-0 7-6(4) in 1 hour 56 minutes: a bagel, then a second set she had to win from a 1-4 deficit in the tiebreak with an ace on match point. At 6′1″ and ranked No. 49 in her first full season she is the most interesting unseeded player in this quarter, and 18–11 on hard courts is a small but healthy record. The ratings say 73–27, and the gap is experience rather than ball-striking: Anisimova was the runner-up here twelve months ago.
The case for Amanda Anisimova
73% to winAnisimova reached the final here last year, is ranked No. 10, and won her opener 6-1 6-3 in 72 minutes — the quickest women's win of the day. She saved ten of the eleven break points she faced, won 11 of her 13 net points, and hit 25 winners to Krueger's nine. Her 123–76 on hard courts is nearly seven times Tagger's volume, and a first-time main-draw player meeting a Grand Slam finalist on a show court is the specific step this round exists to test.
The case for Lilli Tagger
27% to winTagger is 18, 6′1″, ranked No. 49 in her first full season, and won her opening match at a major with a 6-0 first set and a tiebreak she took from 1-4 down, finishing on an ace. She has no history at this tournament to weigh her down and nothing about her ranking suggests she should be an underdog by 46 points of Elo. Anisimova faced eleven break points on Monday and some of those games she was a point from losing.
Both cases written 2026-08-31, 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
Amanda AnisimovaLilli TaggerPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-31.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
The briefing
Storylines
- Anisimova turned 25 on the day and beat Ashlyn Krueger 6-1 6-3 in 72 minutes, hitting 25 winners.
- She faced eleven break points and saved ten of them.
- Tagger, 18 and in her first US Open, beat Tamara Korpatsch 6-0 7-6(4), taking the tiebreak from 1-4 down and finishing with an ace on match point.
- Anisimova was the US Open runner-up in 2025; Tagger had never played a main-draw match here before this week.
- First meeting: they have never played.
Head to head
They have never met at tour level.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
Watch: Second-round coverage runs across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, which is where a match away from the two show courts will live. (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, and this match has not reached the board yet. (Official US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-31)
Weather: Rain is the story of the week's opening, and it is forecast to get worse before it clears. Showers and thunderstorms are likely overnight — 72% under a low near 72°F — and Tuesday is the worst day on the board: near 81°F with storms likely through the day, 67%, and again after dark at 64%. Wednesday is the break in it, near 76°F on a 26% chance of showers, with a slight chance of storms returning overnight; Thursday is warm and unsettled again, near 84°F on 53%. Friday is the first clean day of the fortnight — near 82°F and mostly sunny after an early 15%. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-31)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
The Round of 64 halves the draw again: 32 women's matches across Wednesday and Thursday, every one of them between players who have already won here this week. The seeds who came through the opening round now meet opponents with form behind them rather than a ranking.
