US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Leylah Fernandez vs 
Mananchaya Sawangkaew
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Leylah Fernandez to advance · locked 2026-08-31 17:45 UTCPrediction
Fernandez, but not by the distance the seeding implies. The 31st seed played the crispest first round of the day session on Sunday — 6-3 6-2 over Shuai Zhang in 1 hour 15 minutes on Stadium 17, four aces to none, 78% of her first-serve points won, and all seven break points she faced saved. She is also the player who reached the final here in 2021 at 19, on a court that has never stopped suiting her. Sawangkaew is No. 94 and beat Panna Udvardy 6-4 6-3 without hitting a single ace, on 69% first serves and 23 unforced errors to Udvardy's 35 — the same patient, low-error tennis that took her to the third round at Wimbledon in June past Maja Chwalinska and Alycia Parks. The ratings call it 61–39 to the Canadian. Fernandez's 15–22 season is the reason it is not wider.
The case for Leylah Fernandez
61% to winFernandez is the seed, No. 33 to Sawangkaew's No. 94, and this is her tournament: a US Open final at 19 and 142–93 on hard courts for her career against 26–18. Her opener was the most efficient scoreline of the two — 6-3 6-2, 75 minutes, seven break points saved from seven — and left-handed pace into a game built on absorbing it is the matchup she wants. They have never played, which favours the player with more ways to win.
The case for Mananchaya Sawangkaew
39% to winSawangkaew wins matches by not losing them: 23 unforced errors against Udvardy, 69% of first serves landed, and a first round closed out in straight sets without an ace to her name. She has already beaten better-ranked players at a major this year — Chwalinska and Alycia Parks at Wimbledon, on the way to the third round. Fernandez is 15–22 on the season and has not been the 2021 finalist for some time; against a player who will make her hit an extra ball in every rally, that record is the live risk.
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
Leylah FernandezMananchaya SawangkaewPlayer 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
- Fernandez reached the US Open final here in 2021 at 19; it remains the best Grand Slam result of her career.
- She saved all seven break points she faced against Shuai Zhang and won in 1 hour 15 minutes.
- Sawangkaew reached the third round at Wimbledon in June, beating Maja Chwalinska and Alycia Parks before Karolina Muchova stopped her.
- She beat Panna Udvardy without hitting an ace, against Udvardy's six.
- First meeting; career hard-court records are 142–93 to Fernandez, 26–18 to Sawangkaew.
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.
Round of 128
Round of 32