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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 32
Coco Gauff vs 
Cristina Bucsa
Round of 32
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Coco Gauff to advance · locked 2026-09-04 05:50 UTCPrediction
Gauff won this tournament in 2023 and is 42-14 for the season with a career hard-court record of 195-77. Bucsa is 40th in the world, 10-16 for the season, and reached this round by beating Himeno Sakatsume 7-6(6) 6-7(0) 7-6(10-6) in three hours across three tiebreaks — a match she won while losing more points than she won. Hard-court Elo separates them by 410 points, which is the widest gap in this round of the women's draw. The one previous meeting, at Indian Wells in 2023, went to Gauff 6-2 6-4. What Bucsa has is a US Open habit: the fourth round here last year is her best major result, and she is Spain's highest-ranked woman. What she does not have is any recent evidence — a 10-16 season, and three hours on court on Thursday against Gauff's two. Gauff was pushed hard by Paula Badosa and needed a tiebreak, made 21 unforced errors to Badosa's 32, and is three wins from the world No. 1 ranking if results elsewhere fall right. This is the seed's match to lose.
The case for Coco Gauff
88% to winGauff is a former champion here, 42-14 for the season, 195-77 on hard courts for her career, and 410 points clear on hard-court Elo. She won their only previous meeting in straight sets. Bucsa arrives on a 10-16 season and off a three-hour, three-tiebreak match in which she won fewer points than her opponent; Gauff arrives off a two-hour win with 21 unforced errors and her fifth consecutive third round in New York behind her.
The case for Cristina Bucsa
12% to winBucsa has been to the fourth round here before, in 2025, which is further than she has gone at any other major, and she has just proved she can stay on court for three hours and win three tiebreaks in a row. She takes the ball early and gives an opponent no rhythm, which is the profile that has troubled Gauff before. Gauff needed a tiebreak to get past a player ranked 87th on Thursday and made five double faults doing it.
Both cases written 2026-09-04, 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
Coco GauffCristina BucsaPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-04.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-04.
The briefing
Storylines
- Gauff won this tournament in 2023 and is into her fifth consecutive US Open third round.
- Bucsa reached this round by beating Himeno Sakatsume 7-6(6) 6-7(0) 7-6(10-6) in three hours — while winning fewer points.
- Hard-court Elo separates them by 410 points, the widest gap in this round of the women's draw.
- Their only meeting was at Indian Wells in 2023; Gauff won it 6-2 6-4.
- Bucsa's fourth round here in 2025 is her best result at any major.
Head to head
One meeting: Gauff won 6-2 6-4 in the Indian Wells round of 64 in March 2023.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-04.
Watch: Third-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 2026-09-04)
Weather: Friday carries a 25% chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high near 81°F, the risk fading through the afternoon, so a delay is possible rather than likely. Friday night is partly cloudy at 13% and 70°F. Saturday is the clean day — sunny, 78°F, 6% — with isolated showers at 16% after dark, and Sunday is mostly sunny at 72°F on 8%. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-04)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
The Round of 32 is the third round, and the last one before a Grand Slam draw becomes a small tournament: sixteen women's matches across Friday and Saturday leave sixteen players standing, every one of them having won twice on these courts. This is the round where the seeding chart stops doing any work — from here on, whoever is left is who you play.
