Here AFP Sport looks at three talking points before the tournament, which starts on Sunday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.<\/p>\n
Coco Gauff, of the US, Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, and Iga Swiatek, of Poland. Photos \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
Sabalenka three-peat bid<\/p>\n
Sabalenka began 2026 in strong style, lifting the trophy in Brisbane before she was stunned by Rybakina in the Australian Open final.<\/p>\n
She avenged that defeat with a victory over the Kazakh in the final at Indian Wells and completed the \u201cSunshine Double\u201d with a triumph in Miami.<\/p>\n
But Sabalenka hasn\u2019t reached a final since, her early exits including a quarter-final defeat at Roland Garros and a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon before fourth-round exits in Toronto and Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka said in Cincinnati that the key to turning things around is to play with \u201cno fear\u201d and added that whatever her ranking and whatever her form she relishes being the woman to beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love having the target on my back,\u201d said Sabalenka, who will open her campaign against Camila Osorio in a quarter that also includes surprise Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova.<\/p>\n
Rybakina injury fears<\/p>\n
Rybakina has been ramping up the pressure on Sabalenka, but the Kazakh star\u2019s US Open bid was thrown into doubt when she withdrew from her quarter-final in Cincinnati with an apparent Achilles tendon injury.<\/p>\n
Rybakina pulled out of the US Open mixed doubles but practised vernight at Flushing Meadows, where she was drawn to face American wild card Thea Frodin in the first round.<\/p>\n
She could face eighth-seeded Swiatek in the quarter-finals, the two major winners headlining a tough quarter that also includes four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, former Australian Open winner Madison Keys and Swiss veteran Belinda Bencic.<\/p>\n
Resurgent Gauff, Swiatek<\/p>\n
Former champions Gauff and Swiatek arrive in New York on the backs of their first titles of 2026.<\/p>\n
Fourth-seeded Gauff faces a potential quarter-final against fifth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, who won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros as Gauff\u2019s title defence there ended in the third round.<\/p>\n
A year after her service struggles prompted a pre-tournament coaching change, the 22-year-old American\u2019s US Open campaign promises to be a less chaotic affair.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, I feel it\u2019s night and day the player I am from last year to now,\u201d said Gauff, who also won the title in Cincinnati in 2023 \u2013 when she went on to lift her first major trophy at the US Open.<\/p>\n
Poland\u2019s Swiatek is also on the upswing. She hadn\u2019t reached a final in 2026 until she triumphed in Toronto.<\/p>\n
She then reached the semi-finals in Cincinnati, pushing her winning streak to 10 matches before falling to Pegula.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made some steps forward in this intensive part of the season,\u201d said Swiatek, who won the US Open in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u2013 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here AFP Sport looks at three talking points before the tournament, which starts on Sunday at the Billie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[2857,5184,19928,15060,22352,10048,185,2286,2816,2465,11561,22347,517,680,7382,22350,22345,20280,22349,2466,7432,22351,3133,22344,22346,2519,22348,12699,1127],"class_list":["post-59424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coco-gauff","tag-and","tag-aryna","tag-belarusian","tag-bid","tag-clinch","tag-coco","tag-coco-gauff","tag-final","tag-gauff","tag-grand","tag-iga","tag-line","tag-open","tag-ranking","tag-rare","tag-recent","tag-sabalenkas","tag-season","tag-shake","tag-slam","tag-star","tag-struggles","tag-swiatek","tag-threaten","tag-threepeat","tag-us","tag-where","tag-will","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}