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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Karolina Muchova vs Katie Boulter — 6-1 6-0
 Karolina Muchova✓ | 6 | 6 |
 Katie Boulter | 1 | 0 |
Final · Wednesday, September 2, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Rain drove the match under the roof at Louis Armstrong Stadium, and Karolina Muchova needed 58 minutes of it. Katie Boulter, serving first, was broken, broke back for 1-1 and held a break point in Muchova's next service game — and won nothing else. From 1-1 the seventh seed took 11 consecutive games, converting all seven break points she saw as Boulter lost every one of her service games. The British No. 1 hit eight double faults and no aces, won 33% of the points behind her first serve, and finished with four winners against 22 unforced errors, 15 of them in the first set; she took 25 points in all. Muchova made nine errors to 14 winners, working the court with drop shots. “Ultimately, it was a bad day at the office – times two,” Boulter said, adding that the roof and the noise had distracted her. Muchova, the Wimbledon runner-up and this tournament's mixed doubles champion, reached a fourth straight US Open third round.
Karolina MuchovaRows 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
What we know now
Court: Louis Armstrong Stadium
Match length: 0:58
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.
Muchova, and the first round was a demonstration. She beat Sinja Kraus 6-3 6-0 in 58 minutes on the Grandstand without facing a break point, taking 54 of the 80 points — and it was her first singles match since the Wimbledon final she lost to Linda Noskova on 11 July, fifty-one days earlier. She has not been idle in between: she won the mixed doubles at this tournament last week with Jakub Mensik. Boulter took a much harder road, 6-4 3-6 6-0 over Carol Young Suh Lee in 2 hours 35 minutes on Court 5, with no aces and seven double faults and seventeen break points needed to convert five — though the bagel at the end says she found it eventually. The ratings put it near 72–28 to the seventh seed and their only meeting, Miami in March, went 6-3 7-5 to Muchova. Boulter's serve on a good day is the one thing that changes the arithmetic; Monday was not a good day for it.
The case for Karolina Muchova
72% to winMuchova is the seventh seed, No. 7 in the world, 35–10 on the season, a US Open semi-finalist in 2024 and a Wimbledon finalist two months ago. She won their only previous meeting 6-3 7-5 in Miami in March. Her first round cost her 58 minutes and no break points, and her variety — the slice, the drop shot, the willingness to come forward — is precisely what a big first serve cannot protect against once the rally starts. On this evidence the layoff has cost her nothing.
The case for Katie Boulter
28% to winBoulter is 109–88 on hard courts and has beaten top-ten players on them before; when her serve is working it takes the rally out of Muchova's hands entirely, which is the only reliable way to beat her. She also won a match on Sunday in which almost nothing was working — no aces, seven double faults, twelve break points squandered — and still closed it 6-0. Muchova, meanwhile, is playing her second singles match in seven weeks and has a long history of bodies giving way at majors.
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: Karolina Muchova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The seventh seed, the head-to-head, and a 58-minute opening round in which she never faced a break point.”
Locked 2026-08-31 17:45 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Karolina MuchovaKatie BoulterPlayer 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
- Muchova's first-round win was her first singles match since losing the Wimbledon final to Linda Noskova on 11 July — but she won the US Open mixed doubles with Jakub Mensik in Fan Week in between.
- She beat Sinja Kraus 6-3 6-0 in 58 minutes without facing a break point.
- Boulter needed 2 hours 35 minutes, no aces and seven double faults to get past Carol Young Suh Lee — then took the third set 6-0.
- Their only meeting was the second round at Miami in March 2026, 6-3 7-5 to Muchova.
- Muchova is a two-time US Open semi-finalist; Boulter's best here is the third round in 2023.
Head to head
Muchova leads 1–0, from their only meeting: 6-3 7-5 in the second round at Miami in March 2026, on a hard court.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
Court & schedule: Louis Armstrong Stadium, Wednesday 2 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.