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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Nikola Bartunkova vs 
Tatjana Maria
Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Nikola Bartunkova to advance · locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTCPrediction
Nineteen years and forty-nine ranking places separate them, and both arrive from first rounds that took two days. Bartunkova is 20, ranked 34th, was 251st a year ago and is playing her first US Open; she beat Mayar Sherif 6-1 6-2 across Tuesday and Wednesday and never let her earn a break point, then spent the press conference describing an argument about the noise her shoes were making. Maria is 39, ranked 83rd and playing her fifteenth US Open — she has never reached the third round of one. She got past the 30th seed Jelena Ostapenko 4-6 6-1 6-2 over three restarts and two days by doing what she has done for fifteen years: slicing everything, taking the pace off, and waiting. Ostapenko hit 48 winners and 59 unforced errors, which is the shape of a Maria win. Bartunkova is a cleaner ball-striker with far more margin than Ostapenko, and the Elo tables put her nearly 150 points clear. But this is the first time she has had to solve a slice at a major.
The case for Nikola Bartunkova
71% to winBartunkova is 27-17 for the season, has climbed more than 200 ranking places in twelve months, and has already beaten a top-60 player here without conceding a break point. She is the harder hitter and by a long way the fresher of the two — 20 against 39. The Elo tables have her nearly 150 points ahead, and she has spent the week proving she can hold a lead through a rain break.
The case for Tatjana Maria
29% to winMaria has just beaten a seed by making her play 200 balls she did not want to play, and Bartunkova has never seen anything like it at this level. There is no head-to-head, no video worth studying and no shot on the WTA tour that looks like Maria's slice; a first-time main-draw player is exactly the kind of opponent it beats. Maria is also the only one of the two who has played a second Wednesday at this tournament before.
Both cases written 2026-09-02, 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
Nikola BartunkovaTatjana MariaPlayer 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 2026-09-02.
The briefing
Storylines
- Bartunkova is playing her first US Open; Maria is playing her fifteenth and has never reached the third round.
- Maria beat the 30th seed Jelena Ostapenko 4-6 6-1 6-2 across three restarts and two days.
- Bartunkova beat Mayar Sherif 6-1 6-2 without conceding a single break point.
- Bartunkova was ranked 251st a year ago and is 34th now.
- They have never played each other, and there is a nineteen-year age gap.
Head to head
They have never met.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
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: Court 13, Thursday 3 September. 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 2026-09-02)
Weather: Wednesday night is wet: showers and thunderstorms likely at 64% on a low near 72°F, which is the night session's problem and the roofs' answer. Thursday stays unsettled — 83°F, showers and thunderstorms likely, again at 64% — and eases to 33% overnight. Friday improves without quite clearing: mostly sunny and 82°F, with a slight shower chance at 23%. Saturday is the clean day, sunny and 78°F on 2%, and Sunday is sunny at 74°F. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-02)
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.
