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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Madison Keys vs 
Anna Bondar
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Madison Keys to advance · locked 2026-09-01 22:35 UTCPrediction
Keys, and the case against her is that she has already been made to work once this week. Ten of the twenty-two games in her first round went against serve; she failed to serve out a set from 5-3, was broken back from 0-40, and made thirty unforced errors against a 19-year-old ranked 69th. Bondar had a cleaner afternoon on Court 6 and, more to the point, has done exactly this before: she beat the 12th seed Elina Svitolina in the first round here a year ago. But she is 56-79 on hard courts for her career, and Keys is 239-152. Their one meeting, in the Charleston fourth round in March, went 6-2 7-5 to Keys on clay, the surface that most favours Bondar's patience. On a hard court, in a stadium, against the biggest ball-striker either of them will face this fortnight, patience runs out.
The case for Madison Keys
79% to winKeys is a former Australian Open champion, the 2017 runner-up on these courts, and 239-152 on hard courts across her career against Bondar's 56-79. She won their only meeting on Bondar's better surface. She also came through the round that has ambushed her before — she lost in the first round here last year — and the twenty-one winners she hit on Tuesday were three times her opponent's.
The case for Anna Bondar
21% to winBondar has already beaten a top-15 seed in this round at this tournament: Elina Svitolina, 6-2 6-4, twelve months ago. She reached a final in Hamburg this year and is 25-24 on the season, and she has the game to make Keys hit one more ball than Keys wants to. Tuesday's evidence cuts her way too — Keys was broken four times by a teenager and needed three set points and a second match point to finish. A shaky serving day from Keys is not a rare event, and it is the whole margin here.
Both cases written 2026-09-01, 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
Madison KeysAnna BondarPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-01.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-01.
The briefing
Storylines
- One previous meeting: Keys won 6-2 7-5 in the Charleston fourth round on clay in March 2026.
- Bondar beat the 12th seed Elina Svitolina 6-2 6-4 in the first round here in 2025.
- Keys came through ten breaks of serve in twenty-two games against Alina Korneeva, failing to serve out both sets from 5-3.
- Keys lost in the first round of this tournament last year, to Renata Zarazua.
- Bondar reached the Hamburg final this season and is ranked No. 73; her best US Open run is the second round.
Head to head
One meeting, in the Charleston round of 16 on clay in March 2026: Keys won 6-2 7-5. They have never met on a hard court.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-01.
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 2026-09-01)
Weather: Tonight is the last of the wet weather and the worst of it: showers and thunderstorms at 84% before the sky clears to mostly cloudy on a low near 71°F. Wednesday is the break the tournament has been waiting for — near 75°F on an 18% chance of a shower — though storms creep back after dark at 65%. Thursday is the unsettled one, warm at 81°F with showers and thunderstorms likely at 65% and 53% overnight. Friday turns: near 82°F and mostly sunny on 10%, the first clean day of the fortnight, with Saturday better still. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-01)
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