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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Linda Noskova vs Lanlana Tararudee — 6-4 6-2
 Linda Noskova✓ | 6 | 6 |
 Lanlana Tararudee | 4 | 2 |
Final · Wednesday, September 2, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Seventy-eight minutes on Armstrong, and the Wimbledon champion is into the third round. Linda Noskova came forward far more than a night match usually asks for, winning 22 of her 27 points at the net, and hit seven aces to go with 25 winners; she broke three times from seven chances while Lanlana Tararudee, who landed 47% of her first serves, took none of her three. It equals Noskova's best US Open, and it comes seven weeks after she beat Karolina Muchova 6-2 5-7 6-3 at Wimbledon for her first major — the third Czech woman to win that title in four years. She had reached this round from 2-5 down against Katie Volynets, taking ten games in a row. Tararudee is 22, ranked 76th and Thailand's No. 1, and was in the last 64 of a major for the first time; she and Mananchaya Sawangkaew were the first two Thai women to reach that stage at the same US Open, which the Thai federation called a new page for the country. Tamarine Tanasugarn, in 2003, is still the only Thai woman to have gone further here.
Linda NoskovaRows 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: 1:18
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.
Noskova, the Wimbledon champion, against a player making her US Open debut who has never faced her — and Monday is a reason for a little doubt rather than none. Noskova was broken three times and trailed Katie Volynets 2-5, saved two set points, and only then turned it into the match the ranking implied: five games in a row for the set, then 5-0 and nine points conceded in the second. Ten double faults in 97 minutes is the number that travels. Tararudee's own debut win was longer and harder: 2 hours 45 minutes over Elvina Kalieva, a second-set tiebreak lost 7-4 and a third set taken 6-2, carried by an extraordinary 82% of points won behind her first serve — though she landed only 49% of them, and made 44 unforced errors. She is 22, ranked 76th, and this is the first Grand Slam main draw of her career. The gap in class is large and Noskova has one loss to a player outside the top 75 in the last two years; the gap in nerve on Monday was not.
The case for Linda Noskova
78% to winNoskova is the reigning Wimbledon champion, the youngest since Kvitova in 2011, and has risen from twelfth to sixth in the world since July. She has lost twice to players ranked outside the top 75 in two years. Her recovery from 2-5 down was the answer to the only question Monday raised: she saved two set points and then took eleven of the next thirteen games. Tararudee is playing her first Grand Slam main draw and needed 2 hours 45 minutes to get past a player ranked outside the top 150.
The case for Lanlana Tararudee
22% to winTararudee has already won the longest match of the two, coming through a lost tiebreak to take a deciding set 6-2, and she did it winning 82% of the points behind her first serve — the highest figure of anyone in this section of the draw. She has nothing to defend and no history with Noskova to be intimidated by. And Noskova was two games from losing a set to the world No. 91 on Monday, with ten double faults in it.
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.
My locked pick: Linda Noskova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The Wimbledon champion and world No. 6 against a first-time Grand Slam main-draw player, even after a shaky opening set.”
Locked 2026-09-01 01:20 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Linda NoskovaLanlana TararudeePlayer 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
- This is Tararudee's first Grand Slam main draw, and she won her opener 6-3 6-7(4) 6-2 in 2 hours 45 minutes.
- Noskova came from 2-5 down and saved two set points before beating Katie Volynets 7-5 6-1, having been moved onto Louis Armstrong by the organisers.
- Noskova is the reigning Wimbledon champion and has climbed from twelfth to sixth in the world since July.
- Tararudee won 82% of the points behind her first serve in the first round, but landed only 49% of them.
- First meeting; they have never played.
Head to head
They have never met at tour level.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
Court & schedule: Louis Armstrong Stadium, Wednesday 2 September in the night session. 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 2026-09-01)
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.