{"id":1032892,"date":"2026-08-30T11:59:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T11:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1032892\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T11:59:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T11:59:28","slug":"five-women-to-watch-at-us-open-come-with-plenty-of-questions-to-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1032892\/","title":{"rendered":"Five women to watch at US Open come with plenty of questions to answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five women to watch at\u00a0this year\u2019s U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka<\/strong><\/p>\n

She\u2019s the top seed and the favorite. The World No. 1 is an eye-watering 20-1 at Flushing Meadows since 2023, one imperious Coco Gauff performance away from going for a four-peat. But she hasn\u2019t won a title since the Sunshine Double and is getting beaten by inferior players<\/a> lately. <\/p>\n

Asked Friday if anything is wrong with her game, she fired back, \u201cMaybe there\u2019s something wrong with people.\u201d OK, then.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus hits the ball in a practice session during Fan Week on Thursday, August 27, 2026, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff<\/strong><\/p>\n

At this point last year, Gauff\u2019s serve was errant, double-faults were an issue and her career was grinding gears. But after a biomechanics specialist helped her serve and a year of growth helped her mindset, she enters as the No. 4 seed and is the hottest woman on tour with a deep run at Wimbledon<\/a> and title in Cincinnati. <\/p>\n

Gauff: \u201cIt just grew. Specifically, my experience last year was so tough for me on the court. \u2026 Then the Open finished and life is [still] normal. Sometimes I ride and die on my results, just because [of] how competitive and perfectionist I am. I find that every time I\u2019ve done well at a tournament is when I\u2019ve taken a step back and just focus on the joy of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula of the USA hits the ball in a practice session during Fan Week at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula<\/strong><\/p>\n

A semifinalist last year and finalist the year before that, the No. 3 seed has a game that is rock-solid but will leave questions about whether she can ever claim a major until she finally breaks through to do it. The American deserves her flowers for amplifying player voices and negotiating better wages. But can she win the big one? Pegula: \u201cLooking back, I\u2019m a much better player now. To be honest, I\u2019m doing a lot of things better now. That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean I\u2019m going to do them better all the time, but I do think there are things I\u2019ve improved since that final.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iga Swiatek<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina\u2019s freak leg injury in Cincinnati casts a cloud on her status, and may help open the door for No. 8 seed Swiatek to make this list. She has championship DNA \u2014 with three straight French Open crowns and a title here in Flushing in 2022 \u2014 along with newfound form on the North American hardcourts. If her nerve holds, she\u2019s dangerous. And speaking of wild cards \u2026<\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka<\/strong><\/p>\n

Naomi Osaka is seen on the practice court during the US Open on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, on Wednesday, August 26, 2026. Robert Bell\/INSTARimages<\/p>\n

The former Elmont native is a 13th-seeded wild card, and always a contender. She won the U.S. Open in 2018 and \u201920, then after childbirth and a mid-career derailing she stormed back to make last year\u2019s semifinals. <\/p>\n

She hasn\u2019t won a title this season but can dominate anybody in the field on her day. <\/p>\n

How many of those days can she string together here in Flushing over the next two weeks?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five women to watch at\u00a0this year\u2019s U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows. Aryna Sabalenka She\u2019s the top seed and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1032893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[2477,2210,22298,21487,62,1464,67,132,68,20886],"class_list":["post-1032892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-coco-gauff","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-us-open-tennis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117184349263512792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1032892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1032892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1032893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1032892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1032892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1032892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}