(Photo credit score: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images)
One of 4 girls can depart New York on Sept. 12 because the world’s top-ranked tennis participant.
Two Americans — Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula — must elevate the 2026 U.S. Open trophy in Arthur Ashe Stadium so as to stake their first-ever declare on that international honor.
Top-seeded and two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka could be very susceptible, having to defend the two,000 factors she earned by profitable the 2025 crown in Flushing Meadows. The Belarusian, who has held the highest spot since October 2024 (97 weeks), has to win or hope that Gauff, Pegula or Elena Rybakina — her most certainly successor — don’t.
Rybakina might have the best path to dethrone Sabalenka. She is just 434 rating factors behind and will take the highest spot with out placing a ball, so long as the aforementioned three gamers don’t win. If Rybakina wins and even reaches the semifinals, she would ascend to the highest of the rankings for the primary time.
The complicating issue is that the second-seeded Rybakina, who competes underneath the Kazakhstan flag, suffered a left ankle harm throughout her Cincinnati Open quarterfinal match towards Poland’s Iga Swiatek.
Rybakina, the 2026 Australian Open champion, instantly bowed out of the match and didn’t apply for eight days till taking the apply courts on the U.S Open grounds on Friday.
‘Seems OK, so hopefully it will be good for my first match,’ Rybakina advised The Mirror on Tuesday of her ankle. ‘In complete I had like 10 days, and I nonetheless have a pair extra to organize.’
Swiatek, the 2022 U.S. Open champion, 2026 French Open champion Mirra Andreeva of Russia and Japan’s Naomi Osaka, who earned titles in New York in 2018 and 2020, are additionally prime contenders for the title.
Swiatek, seeded No. 8, gained her first event of the 12 months in Toronto, whereas No. 13 Osaka is enjoying her finest tennis since returning to the tour in January 2024.
And the Philippines won’t let anybody overlook about their phenom, Alexandra Eala, who has vaulted as much as a No. 17 seed after a summer time the place she knocked off Pegula to win in Washington, D.C., and likewise produced victories over Rybakina (Berlin) and Swiatek (Wimbledon).
On paper, Gauff has a brutal draw, having to probably face Eala in a third-round match after which maybe fifth-seeded Andreeva or Tenth-seeded Amanda Anisimova within the quarterfinals. Rybakina, Swiatek, Osaka and No. 12 Swiss standout Belinda Bencic all reside within the different quarter of the underside half.
Gauff is in a a lot completely different place than she was finally 12 months’s Open when she shocked everybody by altering coaches simply earlier than the 2025 occasion, bringing in Gavin MacMillan to repair her wayward serve. The fast outcomes had been predictable with such brief discover: the serve was inconsistent, even bringing the then-21-year-old to tears in a second-round match towards Croatian Donna Vekic.
Osaka ousted Gauff within the fourth spherical, however Gauff admits now the short-term ache is resulting in a long-term achieve. Most of her service metrics are up from a 12 months in the past, particularly first-serve share (up 1.6%) and double faults (down 2.1%).
‘The U.S. Open could be the one that you just really feel probably the most stress at, simply being an American eager to succeed and do properly,’ mentioned Gauff at Friday’s Media Day. ‘In the grand scheme, it is not likely that many alternatives you get to play right here so I simply attempt to take pleasure in every single time that I’m out right here.’
In the higher half, Sabalenka might need to cope with a pair of Wimbledon champions and Czech Republic natives in her quarter, as No. 27 seed and 2024 titlist Barbora Krejcikova is a possible third-round opponent and reigning Wimbledon champion sixth-seeded Linda Noskova could possibly be a quarterfinal foe.
Pegula may face seventh-seeded and newly topped U.S. Open blended doubles champion Karolina Muchova from the Czech Republic or probably No. 9 resurgent Elina Svitolina of Ukraine within the quarters.
The Buffalo, N.Y., native talked concerning the depth of the tour in comparison with the boys’s sport and the tight factors race in 2026 in constructive phrases.
‘You can simply see how the depth is fairly loopy,’ mentioned Pegula. ‘I believe it appears to me like perhaps, (the WTA is) extra open in a method simply because … there’s extra possibilities to win.’
–Field Level Media