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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Alexandra Eala vs Oleksandra Oliynykova — 6-1 6-4
 Alexandra Eala✓ | 6 | 6 |
 Oleksandra Oliynykova | 1 | 4 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Their only previous meeting was on clay in Strasbourg in May, where Oliynykova came from a set down to win. On a hard court it took Eala 64 minutes. She won the opening points in a rush, led 4-0, and gave up one game to a break in the fifth before taking the set 6-1 in 23 minutes. The second was more of a contest — Eala broke for 3-2, was broken straight back, then broke again in the seventh game, which settled it — and she served it out in front of an Armstrong crowd thick with Filipino flags. The margin was 59 points to 35: nineteen winners against six, eleven points of fourteen won at the net, five breaks from seven. Oliynykova, in her first US Open main draw, won half the points on her own first serve. It is the first time Eala has reached the third round in New York, where she lost in the second round on her debut a year ago; a win in the next round would equal her Wimbledon fourth round from this summer. She said afterwards that patience and consistency of focus had been the key, and that she was proud of what she represents.
Alexandra EalaRows 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
Court: Louis Armstrong Stadium
Match length: 1:04
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.
Eala, but not by as much as the seeding suggests, because these two have played this year and Oliynykova won. That was Strasbourg in May, on clay, 3-6 7-5 6-3, and it is the only evidence either of them has about the other. Everything since has gone the Filipina's way: a first WTA title in Washington in August, a career-high ranking of 18th, the highest Grand Slam seeding any Filipino player has held, and a 6-1 6-2 first round against the qualifier Mary Stoiana in which she saved all six break points she faced and broke four times. She is 21, left-handed, and 45-37 on hard courts. Oliynykova is 25, ranked 46th, and at her first US Open; she beat the wild card Reese Brantmeier 6-4 6-4 in a match with ten breaks of serve in twenty games, twice going a break down in the second set before winning the last three games. Her hard-court record at this level is 5-7 — she has built the ranking on clay and on the Challenger tour, and this is the surface that suits her least and Eala most.
The case for Alexandra Eala
82% to winEala is 28 ranking places higher, playing the best tennis of her life, and on the surface where her results live: a WTA 500 title in Washington in August over Fernandez, Svitolina, Osaka and Pegula, and a first round here that took 78 minutes. She has 45 hard-court wins to Oliynykova's five. The Strasbourg loss was on clay in May, before the title run that reordered her season, and the left-handed serve that saved six of six break points against Stoiana is a different weapon on a hard court than it was on a slow one.
The case for Oleksandra Oliynykova
18% to winOliynykova has beaten Eala once already this season, from a set down, which is the only head-to-head fact in the match and it belongs to her. She has won 19 matches this year, is ranked 46th on merit, and is difficult to finish: she was broken twice in the second set against Brantmeier and still won it, and ten breaks in twenty games is a scoreline that suits a returner rather than a server. Eala has been seeded at a major for the first time and the expectation that comes with 17 beside a name is not nothing at 21.
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: Alexandra Eala to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The seed, the ranking and a nine-to-one hard-court record against her; Oliynykova's Strasbourg win was on clay and is the reason the margin is not wider.”
Locked 2026-09-02 10:30 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Alexandra EalaOleksandra OliynykovaPlayer 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 2026-09-02.
Storylines
- Oliynykova leads 1-0: she beat Eala 3-6 7-5 6-3 in the Strasbourg second round in May, on clay.
- Eala is seeded 17th — the highest Grand Slam seeding a Filipino player has held — and was given Louis Armstrong Stadium for her first round on ticket demand.
- Eala beat the qualifier Mary Stoiana 6-1 6-2, saving all six break points she faced and breaking four times from eight chances.
- Oliynykova is at her first US Open and beat the wild card Reese Brantmeier 6-4 6-4 in a match with ten breaks of serve in twenty games.
- Eala won her first WTA title in Washington in August and reached a career-high No. 18 the week before the tournament; her tour-level hard-court record is 45-37 to Oliynykova's 5-7.
Head to head
Oliynykova leads 1-0. They met once, in the Strasbourg second round in May 2026, on clay: Oliynykova won 3-6 7-5 6-3.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Court & schedule: Louis Armstrong Stadium, 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.