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Sports · US Open 2026 · Women's Singles · Round of 32
Iga Swiatek vs 
Marie Bouzkova
Round of 32
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Iga Swiatek to advance · locked 2026-09-03 19:10 UTCPrediction
Swiatek has conceded five games in each of her two matches — 6-2 6-3 over Wang Xiyu on Monday night, then 6-3 6-2 over Nadia Podoroska in seventy-one minutes on Thursday, a match in which Podoroska's only four break points all arrived in the same game and none of them was taken. She won Toronto in August, reached the Cincinnati semi-finals, and is 12-1 on the American hard courts this summer. Bouzkova has been just as economical: 6-2 6-2 in the first round, 6-2 6-2 in the second, the latter without facing a single break point in sixteen games behind 73% first serves. She is 28 and seeded 25, won the girls' title on these courts in 2014, and is having the best season of her career — titles in Bogota and on grass at Nottingham, and a fourth round at Wimbledon. The problem is the head-to-head. It is 3-0 to Swiatek and has never produced a set: 6-4 6-2 at Roland Garros in 2024, 6-1 6-1 at Wuhan last October, 6-2 6-3 in the Australian Open second round in January. Bouzkova wins points by width, slice and patience, which is the pattern Swiatek's forehand is built to punish.
The case for Iga Swiatek
84% to winThree meetings, three straight-sets wins, no set conceded, and the most recent was eight months ago on a hard court. Swiatek has dropped five games in each round here, is the 2022 champion, and arrives on a 12-1 American summer with the Toronto title in it. Her forehand against a player whose method is to extend rallies is the entire matchup, and it has resolved the same way three times.
The case for Marie Bouzkova
16% to winBouzkova is playing the best tennis of her career and has not been made to work for a point yet — two matches, two 6-2 6-2s, and on Thursday no break point faced at all. Swiatek has not been past the quarter-finals in New York since she won the place in 2022, and her 2026 has included a third-round exit at Wimbledon she was not supposed to have. If the court plays slow and the slice drags rallies past six shots, the margin is narrower than the head-to-head says.
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.
Tale of the tape
Iga SwiatekMarie BouzkovaPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-03.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-03.
The briefing
Storylines
- Swiatek has conceded exactly five games in each of her two matches here.
- This is her twenty-seventh consecutive third round at a Grand Slam.
- Bouzkova has won both her matches 6-2 6-2 and did not face a break point on Thursday.
- She won the US Open girls' title on these courts in 2014; her best senior run here is a third round.
- Swiatek leads 3-0 and has never dropped a set to her.
Head to head
Swiatek leads 3-0 and has not lost a set: 6-4 6-2 in the Roland Garros third round in 2024, 6-1 6-1 in the Wuhan second round in October 2025, and 6-2 6-3 in the Australian Open second round in January.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-03.
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 2026-09-03)
Weather: This afternoon and tonight both carry a 33% chance of showers and thunderstorms, 82°F easing to a low near 74°F — the morning's forecast had the day at 58%, so Thursday has improved rather than cleared. Friday is now the unsettled one: partly sunny early, 81°F, showers and storms likely at 46% through the afternoon and 41% after dark, which is the third round's problem and the roofs' answer. Saturday is the clean day — sunny, 78°F, 1% — and Sunday holds, mostly sunny at 73°F on 2%. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-03)
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.
