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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 32
Linda Noskova vs Ann Li — 6-2 6-7(6) 6-2
 Linda Noskova✓ | 6 | 66 | 6 |
 Ann Li | 2 | 7 | 2 |
Final · Friday, September 4, 2026 · Round of 32
Result
Nosková needed less than half an hour for the first set, winning five games in a row from 0-1 down, and led 3-0 with a double break in the second. Then it got away from her. She was pulled back level, failed to serve the match out at 5-4, led the tiebreak 5-2, held a match point at 6-5 and lost it 8-6. The third set she settled: four games from 2-2, and a third match point converted in the eighth. Li served ten aces, one more than Nosková, but landed 43% of her first serves and double-faulted seven times, and Nosková took six of her eleven break points to Li's two from five. It is a tenth consecutive Grand Slam match win for the Wimbledon champion — she beat Karolína Muchová in that final in July — and a first US Open fourth round, at a tournament where she had never previously gone beyond the third. She plays Marta Kostyuk, whom she beat in straight sets at Wimbledon this year, for a place in the quarter-finals.
Linda NoskovaRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
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.
Round of 64
Round of 32
What we know now
Court: Stadium 17
Match length: 2:18
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.
Noskova won Wimbledon seven weeks ago, is sixth in the world at 21, and has spent 2hr 55min reaching the third round — 7-5 6-1 over Katie Volynets from 2-5 down in the first set, then 78 minutes to beat Lanlana Tararudee, in which she won 22 of her 27 points at the net. Li has spent rather more of herself: 7-5 6-1 over Antonia Ruzic and then 2hr 44min against Donna Vekic, a match she won by two points, 121 to 119, having lost the first set and saved the second in a tiebreak. That is the shape of her season — 23-23, a lot of long matches, and a fourth round here last year that remains her best major. They met once, in Dubai in February, and Noskova won 6-3 5-7 6-4, which is the encouraging half of the record for Li: she took a set off a player who would win Wimbledon five months later. The hard-court Elo gap is 188 points, which is wide but not the widest in this round, and Li at 28th in the world is playing the best tennis of her career. Noskova, but the American should get a set.
The case for Linda Noskova
75% to winNoskova is a Grand Slam champion at 21 and sixth in the world, and she has been on court for under three hours to Li's four and a half. She won the only previous meeting, she is 33-14 for the season, and she has just come through two rounds without any of the wobble that a first Slam title sometimes brings. The third round is her US Open ceiling, which is the one thing here that could weigh on her.
The case for Ann Li
25% to winLi has beaten a former top-20 player in three sets on this court this week and did it with two unforced errors in the deciding set, which is not the profile of a player who folds. She took a set off Noskova in Dubai in February. She is 28th in the world, a career high, made the fourth round here last year, and has the crowd. If the match becomes long and awkward, that is her ground rather than Noskova's.
Both cases written 2026-09-03, 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: Linda Noskova to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The Wimbledon champion, 188 points clear on hard-court Elo, and half the court time of her opponent.”
Locked 2026-09-03 04:10 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Linda NoskovaAnn LiPlayer 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 2026-09-02.
Storylines
- Noskova won Wimbledon in July, beating Karolina Muchova in the final for her first major.
- The third round equals her best US Open result.
- Li beat Donna Vekic by two points across 2hr 44min on Wednesday.
- Li reached the fourth round here in 2025, her best run at a major.
- Noskova leads 1-0, having won 6-3 5-7 6-4 in Dubai in February.
Head to head
Noskova leads 1-0: 6-3 5-7 6-4 in the Dubai round of 64 in February 2026, on a hard court.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Court & schedule: Stadium 17, Friday 4 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 2026-09-03)
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.