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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Maria Sakkari vs 
Yuliia Starodubtseva
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Maria Sakkari to advance · locked 2026-09-01 22:35 UTCPrediction
Sakkari, narrowly, and the two first rounds are the argument on both sides. Sakkari lost the first set 6-2 to a qualifier ranked 187th, went 0-4 down in the second, and needed two hours and thirteen minutes and four set points in a twelfth game to save herself; Starodubtseva won 6-2 6-2 in seventy-eight minutes with one double fault and never faced a break point she could not answer. On the day, the Ukrainian was much the better player. Across a career, it is not close: Sakkari is 206-156 on hard courts, a US Open semi-finalist in 2021, and has beaten better than anyone in this section. But she is 19-18 on the season and has been beatable all year, and Starodubtseva at No. 58 is the best-ranked opponent she has faced since Cincinnati. They have never met, which removes the one thing that usually settles a match like this.
The case for Maria Sakkari
65% to winSakkari has been to the semi-finals here and is 206-156 on hard courts; Starodubtseva is 40-42. She also just proved she can win a match she was losing — down a set and 0-4, she won 37 of the next 59 points and did not drop another set. Experience of exactly this stage of exactly this tournament is worth something, and the 32nd seed has more of it than everyone left in her quarter bar the top two.
The case for Yuliia Starodubtseva
35% to winStarodubtseva is the higher-percentage player right now: 23-21 on the season against Sakkari's 19-18, ranked No. 58, and coming off a first round that cost her nothing — seventy-eight minutes, one double fault, 74% of her second-serve points won. Sakkari spent two hours and thirteen minutes surviving a qualifier. This is Starodubtseva's first second round in New York at the third attempt, and the third Ukrainian through this year; she has no reason to be intimidated by a seed whose season has been ordinary.
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
Maria SakkariYuliia StarodubtsevaPlayer 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
- They have never played each other.
- Sakkari came from a set and 0-4 down to beat the qualifier Robin Montgomery 2-6 7-5 6-2 in two hours and thirteen minutes.
- Starodubtseva beat Ella Seidel 6-2 6-2 in seventy-eight minutes, hitting one double fault to seven.
- It is Starodubtseva's third US Open main draw and the first time she has reached the second round here.
- Sakkari reached the semi-finals at this tournament in 2021 and is 19-18 for the season.
Head to head
They have never met at tour level.
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.
