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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Nikola Bartunkova vs Tatjana Maria — 6-7(5) 6-2 6-3
 Nikola Bartunkova✓ | 65 | 6 | 6 |
 Tatjana Maria | 7 | 2 | 3 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Maria was on court in about 30°C heat less than a day after finishing a rain-split first round against the 30th seed Jelena Ostapenko that had, in her own phrase, gone on for almost two days. For an hour the slice worked as it always has: she unsettled Bartunkova, lobbed her repeatedly and took the opening set on a tiebreak, 7-5. Then the 20-year-old Czech, nineteen years her junior, won ten of the next fifteen games. Both women played the match at the net — Bartunkova won 34 points of 51 there, Maria 25 of 48 — but the winners went 46 to 21, and from 0-3 down in the decider Maria's revival came too late. Bartunkova finished it with an ace. It was Maria's fourteenth attempt to reach the third round at Flushing Meadows and her fifth second-round exit here; at 39 she has still never gone past it, watched as usual from the box by her husband and coach and their two daughters. Bartunkova, who has climbed from No. 266 to No. 34 in two years, plays Mirra Andreeva next.
Nikola BartunkovaRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
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.
Round of 128
What we know now
Court: Court 13
Match length: 2:10
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.
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.
My locked pick: Nikola Bartunkova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The Elo gap, the age gap and the fact that Bartunkova has not lost a service game she needed all week; the slice is a real problem but Maria has to hit through a top-40 return to use it.”
Locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
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.
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.
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: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — is 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that cannot be pushed back. Ashe closes its roof and plays on. It clears overnight: 20% Sunday night, 20% Monday, then dry and sunny from Tuesday. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.