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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Cristina Bucsa vs Himeno Sakatsume — 7-6(6) 6-7(0) 7-6(6)
 Cristina Bucsa✓ | 7 | 60 | 7 |
 Himeno Sakatsume | 66 | 7 | 66 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Three sets, three tiebreaks, three hours and a minute, and the loser won more points on the winner's serve than the winner won on hers — 55 to 53. Bucsa broke for 3-2 in the first, could not serve it out at 5-4, and won the breaker 8-6. Sakatsume broke twice in the second, was pegged back, and then took its tiebreak 7-0 without conceding a point. In the decider Bucsa broke for 3-1, served for the match and lost both match points on it, broke again, and could not serve it out a second time either; the deciding-set tiebreak, played to ten at the Slams, went 10-6 her way. Neither woman held any statistical edge worth the name: 61% of first serves in for one, 59% for the other, both winning 62% behind them. Sakatsume, ranked 144th, came through three rounds of qualifying and had beaten Anhelina Kalinina for her first Grand Slam main-draw win. Bucsa is one match from equalling her fourth round here last year, her best at a major; she missed Wimbledon injured and had won nothing at the first two Slams of 2026.
Cristina BucsaRows 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
Round of 64
What we know now
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.
Bucsa is the higher-ranked player at No. 40 and has been further at this tournament than anyone else in this corner of the draw — fourth round a year ago — and she has just beaten the 28th seed, Sara Bejlek, 7-5 4-6 6-1. But she did it on Bejlek's 48 unforced errors rather than her own quality: nineteen winners in 2 hours 7 minutes, and seventeen break points to convert seven. Sakatsume is a qualifier ranked No. 144 playing her first US Open, and her 6-3 6-3 over Anhelina Kalinina in 1 hour 24 minutes was the cleaner match of the two — fourteen unforced errors, 74% of first-serve points won, four breaks from seven. Bucsa's 9–16 season is the number the ratings do not capture; Sakatsume is 14–9. Elo has this near 64–36 to Bucsa and the recent form does not agree. They have never met.
The case for Cristina Bucsa
64% to winBucsa is ranked 104 places higher, reached the fourth round here in 2025, and has just taken out a seed in three sets — an ugly win, but a win against the better player. She is 89–84 on hard courts to Sakatsume's 25–19, and a qualifier reaching a second-round match at a major for the first time has four matches in the legs already.
The case for Himeno Sakatsume
36% to winSakatsume has been the better player this month: 14–9 for the season against Bucsa's 9–16, through qualifying without alarm, and then 6-3 6-3 over Anhelina Kalinina with fourteen unforced errors and 74% of her first-serve points won. Bucsa needed seventeen break points to take seven and made 25 unforced errors against an opponent who made 48; against someone who does not gift points, that profile is a problem.
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.
My locked pick: Cristina Bucsa to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Ranking and a fourth round here last year, against a qualifier whose form is better than her record.”
Locked 2026-08-31 20:50 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Cristina BucsaHimeno SakatsumePlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-02.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
Storylines
- Bucsa beat 28th seed Sara Bejlek 7-5 4-6 6-1, needing seventeen break points to convert seven.
- Bejlek's 48 unforced errors did most of the work; Bucsa hit nineteen winners in 2 hours 7 minutes.
- Sakatsume, a qualifier in her first US Open, beat Anhelina Kalinina 6-3 6-3 with fourteen unforced errors.
- Season records: Sakatsume 14–9, Bucsa 9–16.
- 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.
Court & schedule: Court 6, 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.