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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Iva Jovic vs 
Francesca Jones
Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Iva Jovic to advance · locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTCPrediction
Jovic is 18, seeded 14th, the youngest player in the world's top 40, and playing on the court she grew up watching. Her opening round was the ugliest of her week and she still won it: down 0-3 to Magdalena Frech on a Grandstand running four hours late, back to 4-3, then a slip in the drizzle, a rejected request to replay the point, and an abandonment at 4-4 that put her back out there twenty-two hours later. She came back harder and won 7-5 6-3. Jones is 25, a qualifier ranked 104th, and had an even longer Tuesday: she and Magda Linette started after 9pm, came back on Wednesday, were driven off again, waited 100 minutes and finished 6-4 1-6 6-3 dead level on points, 75-75. She converted all four break points she made. It is her first US Open second round. On form and on ranking this should be straightforward, and the Elo tables agree by more than 200 points; what is not straightforward is that Jovic has now played two matches in two days and is 18.
The case for Iva Jovic
79% to winJovic is the seed, 90 ranking places higher, and she has already shown this week that she plays better after a delay than before one — she came back from an overnight suspension a visibly different player. She is 31-19 for the season, 32-21 on hard courts, and the only 18-year-old in the top 40 of the women's game. Jones has won seven matches on tour all year.
The case for Francesca Jones
21% to winJones has just won three qualifying matches and a two-day first round without losing her nerve in any of them, and she is 26-22 on hard courts for her career against an opponent playing her fourth professional season. She converted every break point she made against Linette. Jovic is 18, has played through two suspended matches in three days, and this is the round where her tournament ended last year.
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
Iva JovicFrancesca JonesPlayer 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
- Jones is a qualifier: three qualifying wins, then a two-day first round over Magda Linette that finished level on points, 75-75.
- Jovic came back from an overnight suspension at 4-4 to beat Magdalena Frech 7-5 6-3.
- Jovic is 18 and the youngest player in the world's top 40; this is her second US Open.
- It is Jones's first US Open second round.
- They have never played each other.
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: Stadium 17, 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.
Round of 128
Round of 32