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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Anastasia Potapova vs Leolia Jeanjean — 6-4 2-6 6-3
| 6 | 2 | 6 | |
| 4 | 6 | 3 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Eighteen double faults between them, ninety-five unforced errors, and a winner count — thirty-one to twelve — that says which of the two was still swinging at the end. Anastasia Potapova, seeded 24 and playing her first US Open as an Austrian after her citizenship came through last December, broke in the opening game, was pulled back to 3-3, broke again at 4-4 and served out the set. Leolia Jeanjean took the second 6-2 by attacking whenever Potapova's error count spiked, then dropped three service games in the decider, the last two of them consecutively. Jeanjean is 31 and here on the reciprocal wild card the French federation and the USTA exchange; a knee injury at 14 ended a junior career that had reached Les Petits As, and she rebuilt it through American college tennis — Baylor, Arkansas, an MBA at Lynn — before beating Karolina Pliskova at Roland Garros in 2022. Her exit leaves no French woman in the singles draw. For Potapova it is two wins in a row for the first time since Roland Garros.
Rows 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
Round of 64
What we know now
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.
Potapova, and the first rounds point the same way as the rankings. The 24th seed hit 32 winners to three and ten aces to none in beating the lucky loser Darja Semenistaja 6-2 6-2 in 75 minutes — her first Grand Slam match under the Austrian flag, four years after she last competed under one, having taken citizenship in December. She is 25, ranked 25th, and 130-111 on hard courts. Jeanjean is the better story and the longer shot. She is 31, ranked 127th, in the draw on the wild card the French federation trades with the USTA, and on Tuesday she won a match at the US Open for the first time at her third attempt — beating the qualifier Arantxa Rus 7-6(6) 6-2 after saving a set point in the tiebreak, and doing it while being out-hit 23 winners to 13. That is the pattern of her tennis: she takes what she is given rather than making it, converting all three break points she earned. Against a server who lands ten aces in two sets there may not be three to earn.
The case for Anastasia Potapova
75% to winPotapova is a hundred places higher, seeded, and playing the freest tennis of her year: 32 winners to three is not a scoreline you produce by accident, and the ten aces matter against an opponent whose whole game is built on returning. She has been to the third round here before, in 2024, and the surface rewards the flatter, earlier ball. Jeanjean has won twelve tour-level matches all season and twenty-six on hard courts in her career.
The case for Leolia Jeanjean
25% to winJeanjean beat a qualifier who had already won three matches on these courts and did it on the days that matter — the tiebreak she was a point from losing, the game she was broken to love and broke straight back. She is 31, came back from a knee that dislocated three ways at 14 and an American college career, and has nothing about a big stage that frightens her; her only Grand Slam third round came from beating a seed at Roland Garros. Potapova's 33 unforced errors against Semenistaja are the door: if the winners stop landing, the free points stop with them.
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.
My locked pick: Anastasia Potapova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A seed a hundred ranking places higher who served ten aces and hit 32 winners in her opener, against a wild card who won her first US Open match at 31.”
Locked 2026-09-02 10:30 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Player 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 2026-09-02.
Storylines
- They have never met.
- Potapova's first round was her first Grand Slam match for Austria; she announced in December that her citizenship had come through, ending four years as a neutral athlete.
- Potapova beat the lucky loser Darja Semenistaja 6-2 6-2, hitting 32 winners to three and ten aces to none.
- Jeanjean won her first US Open match at the third attempt, beating the qualifier Arantxa Rus 7-6(6) 6-2 after saving a set point at 6-5 in the tiebreak.
- Jeanjean is in the draw on the FFT's reciprocal wild card; her only Grand Slam third round is Roland-Garros 2022.
Head to head
They have never met, at tour level or below.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Court & schedule: Court 6, 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: 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.