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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 64
Taylor Townsend vs Taylah Preston — 6-1 6-1
 Taylor Townsend✓ | 6 | 6 |
 Taylah Preston | 1 | 1 |
Final · Wednesday, September 2, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Taylah Preston had practised with Taylor Townsend days beforehand and went in happy to be the underdog: "I've been the underdog quite a lot of times and it's a fun place to be in," she told AAP. It took forty-eight minutes. The 20-year-old from Western Australia, ranked 100th and in the draw on a wild card granted under Tennis Australia's reciprocal arrangement with the USTA, had beaten Alycia Parks for her first Grand Slam main-draw win outside Australia; here she held serve twice, was broken five times, hit two winners against twenty-eight unforced errors and seven double faults, and never reached a break point. Townsend did not lose a point behind her first serve, landing seventy-two per cent of them and striking eight aces, and made eleven unforced errors in the match. Unseeded in singles, she is the world No. 2 in doubles and the top seed in that draw here with Kateřina Siniaková. Diana Shnaider is next.
Taylor TownsendRows 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
Court: Stadium 17
Match length: 0:48
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.
Townsend beat the 20th seed by coming to the net 36 times and winning 26 of those points, which against most of this draw is an unanswerable plan. She won 85% of her first-serve points, hit 29 winners to Maja Chwalinska's ten and broke five times from ten in 1 hour 19 minutes — and she is a three-time Grand Slam doubles champion whose singles ranking of No. 96 badly understates her at this tournament, where she made the fourth round a year ago. Preston, a 20-year-old Australian wildcard ranked No. 100, produced her own straight-sets win over Alycia Parks, 6-3 6-3 in 1 hour 8 minutes, converting four of five break points and making twelve unforced errors to Parks's 32. The ratings have it around 76–24. Preston has never played a second-round match at a major; Townsend has never played her.
The case for Taylor Townsend
76% to winTownsend's serve-and-volley game is the hardest style in the draw to prepare for at short notice, and it just produced 26 net points from 36 approaches and 85% of first-serve points won. She is 113–86 on hard courts to Preston's 12–17, has reached the fourth round here twice, and is the world No. 2 in doubles — which is to say the net is not a gimmick. Preston is 20 and playing the biggest match of her career on the back of a wildcard.
The case for Taylah Preston
24% to winPreston has done nothing wrong: 6-3 6-3 over Alycia Parks in 1 hour 8 minutes, four of five break points taken, twelve unforced errors in the match. Serve-and-volley is unusual but it is also a percentage bet that a 20-year-old with a good passing shot can beat, and Townsend's own first-serve rate of 60% leaves openings. At No. 100 to Townsend's No. 96, this is not the mismatch the seeding suggests.
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: Taylor Townsend to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The net game that beat a seed on Monday, against an opponent with three days to solve it.”
Locked 2026-08-31 20:50 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Taylor TownsendTaylah PrestonPlayer 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
- Townsend beat 20th seed Maja Chwalinska 6-2 6-3, winning 26 of 36 net points and 85% of her first-serve points.
- Preston beat Alycia Parks 6-3 6-3 in 1 hour 8 minutes with 12 unforced errors to Parks's 32.
- Townsend reached the fourth round here in 2019 and 2025; Preston has never won a second-round match at a major.
- Career hard-court records: Townsend 113–86, Preston 12–17.
- 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: Stadium 17, 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.