US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Linda Noskova vs 
Lanlana Tararudee
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Linda Noskova to advance · locked 2026-09-01 01:20 UTCPrediction
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.
Tale of the tape
Linda NoskovaLanlana TararudeePlayer 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 2026-08-31.
The briefing
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.
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.
