New York | Preview: Blockbuster challenges in US Open women’s draw

The draw for the women’s singles at the US Open was made on Thursday, the day the 16 qualifiers were determined, and has thrown up stiff challenges for many players in the field.

Those tough losses [at the US Open] definitely motivated me a lot to hard work, and to improve things which didn’t work in the previous years. I was really happy with the level I played. It’s not like it’s weight out of my shoulder. It just little, like, happy moment before going to the US Open. Aryna Sabalenka

In terms of British interest, only Katie Boulter, Emma Raducanu and Harriet Dart feature in the draw as direct entries, since Lily Miyazaki, Sonay Kartal, Heather Watson and Fran Jones all failed to make it through qualifying.

Boulter is seeded at No 31 and opens against Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich, while 2021 US Open champion Raducanu, who has risen back up to No 47 in the world, has drawn former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, currently ranked 55, in the 1st-round, and Dart, ranked 76, takes on French wild-card Chloe Paquet.

21-year-old Raducanu stunned the world when she won at Flushing Meadows 3 years ago, but she lost in the 1st-round in 2022, and then missed last year as she recovered from several surgeries to repair wrist and ankle issues, which have been successful, but she still has yet to play a full schedule on tour.

Facing the media is almost as daunting a task as playing matches for Raducanu, who has not had an easy couple of years after her historic US Open win, but she claims to now be feeling fully healthy, and in the right head-space.

“I just play so much better when I’m happy, and putting my personality out there,” she told the media recently. “I think I’ve been playing a lot freer in the last month. I have been expressing myself, I’ve been fighting and there has been a lot of passion, I’ve been feisty. And that’s me. I’m really tenacious and gritty.”

Raducanu has her own way of dealing with things, and shrugs off criticism at her lack of recent match play leading into the US Open.

“I just feel a real fire back, and desire. I’ve got that spark back, which is what I’m most pleased about,” Raducanu added. “Even though I might get challenged, or questioned, for not playing certain tournaments like the French Open or the Olympics, that is just part of doing things at my own speed, and doing things how I want to, rather than how everyone else thinks is best for me.

“Ultimately, me, and the close few people around me, know what is best for me and my game.”

If Raducanu can pull off a win against Kenin, then American 6th seed Jessica Pegula is likely to be waiting in the 2nd-round before a possible all-British 3rd-round encounter with Boulter.

World No 1 Iga Swiatek also has been handed a challenging draw, with potential matches against Jessica Pegula and Danielle Collins in her quarter, while she could could face a run that includes a 4th-round clash against rising star Mirra Andreeva, who pushed her all the way in a compelling contest in Cincinnati last week.

Pegula or Collins could then lie in wait in the quarter-finals, with Elena Rybakina a possible semi-final opponent, before a showdown with Aryna Sabalenka in the final.

The 23-year Pole hopes to add another title to a memorable year, after she picked up her 5th major at the French Open, and won in Qatar, Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome, as well.

She picked up Bronze at the Paris Games, and admits that it has taken some adjustment going from the clay courts of Roland Garros to the hard courts of North America, where she lost to Sabalenka in the Cincinnati semi-final.

“It’s been a really intense season, and, after the Olympics, it hasn’t been, kind of, you know, easy,” the 2022 winner told reporters. “So I feel the best when I’m just focused on practicing and grinding on the court.

“I’m just going to try to keep that mindset, and that attitude.”

She opens her campaign against lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova on Tuesday on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The defending champion is Coco Gauff, seeded 3, who has landed in the bottom half of the draw and begins against France’s Varvara Gracheva before probably facing the No 2 seed, Sabalenka, if they both get through to the semi-finals.

Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova could be a Last 8 opponent for Gauff, but she will be relieved to be in the opposite half of the draw to Swiatek.

Sabalenka is hungry for the trophy after coming close but never quite getting the title within her grasp, having reached at least the semi-final stage here over the last 3 years, but she has learned lessons from her tough defeats in New York.

“Those tough losses definitely motivated me a lot to hard work, and to improve things which didn’t work in the previous years,” said Sabalenka.

After retaining her title in Australia, Sabalenka endured a rough mid-year stretch as she suffered a back issue, and skipped Wimbledon with a shoulder injury, but she arrives in New York confident and fit after skipping the Olympics to focus on her health, and winning the Cincinnati tune-up tournament.

“I was really happy with the level I played. It’s not like it’s weight out of my shoulder. It just little, like, happy moment before going to the US Open,” said Sabalenka, who closes out Monday night’s programme on Louis Armstrong Stadium against Australian qualifier Priscilla Hon.

Two significant absentees are Ons Jabeur, nursing a right shoulder injury, and Marketa Vondrousova, who recently has just had surgery on her left shoulder.

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The first quarter is headed by Swiatek, whose projected quarter-final opponent is the in-form No 6 seed Pegula, the Toronto champion and Cincinnati runner-up this month, who will have to navigate a stacked section of her own to get through.

She opens against fellow American Shelby Rogers, with the winner guaranteed to face a former Grand Slam champion in the 2nd-round, either Raducanu or Kenin, who play each other for the first time.

Whoever emerges could face a dangerous big-hitter in the 4th-round, with No 11 seed Danielle Collins, playing the last US Open of her career, Pegula’s projected opponent, but she will potentially have to get past No 18 seed Diana Shnaider first, who was ranked outside the Top 100 in January, and has rocketed into the Top 20 after winning 3 titles on 3 different surfaces this year.

Swiatek, seeking to lift the US Open trophy for a second time, could face either big-hitting No 16 seed Liudmila Samsonova or No 21 seed Mirra Andreeva in the 4th round.

The Pole faced Andreeva for the first time in the Cincinnati quarter-finals last week, edging the 17-year-old Roland Garros semi-finalist, 4-6 6-3 7-5.

First-round matches to watch: [21] Mirra Andreeva vs. Camila Osorio, [11] Danielle Collins vs. Caroline Dolehide, Nadia Podoroska vs. [18] Diana Shnaider, Emma Raducanu vs. Sofia Kenin

World No 4 Elena Rybakina Rybakina, who is returning from a bout of acute bronchitis that kept her out of the Olympic Games, is a potential semi-final opponent of Iga Swiatek

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In the second quarter, a blockbuster meeting between 4-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, the winner in 2018 and 2020, and 10th seed Jelena Ostapenko is on the cards, while another sees No 5 seed Jasmine Paolini facing 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu in her opener, with the winners on course to meet each other in the 4th round.

The winner of Osaka and Ostapenko could play 2023 semi-finalist Karolina Muchova in round 2, the Czech having returned to action in June following a 10-month layoff due to wrist surgery, but she already reached the Palermo final last month.

Muchova’s 1st-round opponent, Katie Volynets, cannot be counted out in this section, the American’s relentlessly consistent game tailor-made for exposing any lingering rust.

Whoever emerges from that section is projected to face No 23 seed Leylah Fernandez, the 2021 runner-up, in the 3rd-round.

Meanwhile, the winner of Paolini and Andreescu could face 2016 finalist Karolina Pliskova in the 2nd-round, and, in the 3rd, one of the year’s best giant-killers in No 30 seed Yulia Putintseva, who has taken down both the World No 1 and 2 within the past 2 months.

Putintseva faces big-hitting 19-year-old Linda Noskova, the Australian Open quarter-finalist, in her opener.

Rybakina, who is returning from a bout of acute bronchitis that kept her out of the Olympic Games, could face either No 28 seed Caroline Garcia or former World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the 3rd-round, and is projected to face No 15 seed Anna Kalinskaya in the 4th-round.

First-round matches to watch: [22] Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Elina Avanesyan, [10] Jelena Ostapenko vs. [WC] Naomi Osaka, Karolina Muchova vs. Katie Volynets, Anastasia Potapova vs. [23] Leylah Fernandez, [30] Yulia Putintseva vs. Linda Noskova, [SR] Bianca Andreescu vs. [5] Jasmine Paolini

Defending champion Coco Gauff opens her campaign against Varvara Gracheva

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Although Gauff’s third quarter section doesn’t quite rival the second for blockbusters, it holds the promise of several intriguing clashes in the 3rd-round and beyond.

The first seed the American is projected to face is No 27 Elina Svitolina in what would be a rematch of their excellent Auckland final in January.

Gauff’s projected 4th-round opponent is one of two players who have defeated her this year – No 13 Emma Navarro ousted her in the 4th-round of Wimbledon, while No 19 Marta Kostyuk edged her in a third-set tiebreak in Stuttgart.

The defending champion has won just one match since the Olympic Games, falling to Shnaider in Toronto and Putintseva in Cincinnati, and will have her hands full here.

In the quarter-finals, she is slated to face No 8 seed and freshly-crowned Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova.

The Czech has only played one tournament since winning her second Grand Slam singles trophy, reaching the Olympic quarter-finals, and opens against qualifier Marina Bassols Ribera, and could have to navigate the threat of No 26 seed Paula Badosa in the 3rd-round.

The former World No 2 has won 20 of her past 26 matches, including a 4th career title in Washington, and a semi-final run in Cincinnati.

Badosa will have to navigate a pair of tricky shot-makers first as she opens against former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Viktorija Golubic, the owner of a rare one-handed backhand, and could face the net skills of Taylor Townsend in round 2.

Townsend, who reached the last 16 here in 2019, cracked the Top 50 for the first time this week after reaching the Toronto quarter-finals and Cincinnati 3rd-round.

In the 4th-round, Krejcikova or Badosa could face either No 9 seed Maria Sakkari, 3-time US Open runner-up and No 20 seed Victoria Azarenka, or 2017 champion Sloane Stephens.

First-round matches to watch: Martina Trevisan vs. Taylor Townsend, Viktorija Golubic vs. [26] Paula Badosa, [WC] McCartney Kessler vs. [19] Marta Kostyuk, [27] Elina Svitolina vs. Maria Lourdes Carle, Varvara Gracheva vs. [3] Coco Gauff

Aryna Sabalenka arrives in New York as a strong favourite for the title but faces challenges ahead

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After defeating Swiatek and Pegula to win Cincinnati last week, Sabalenka enters the US Open, where she has been a semi-finalist twice, in 2021 and 2022, and the runner-up last year, anchoring the fourth quarter as one of the top favourites to take the title.

A quarter-final showdown against Zheng Qinwen or Amanda Anisimova, who defeated Sabalenka in Toronto, would be yet another blockbuster.

Perils lie in wait for all concerned, though, as Sabalenka could meet Lulu Sun in the 2nd-round, the New Zealander who delivered an eye-catching run to the Wimbledon quarter-finals as a qualifier, and has reached the final in Monterrey.

Sabalenka could face No 14 Madison Keys in the 4th-round if seedings hold, although the American has not won a match since Wimbledon, having sustained a hamstring injury in her 4th-round against Paolini there, and retiring from her Toronto opener in her only outing since.

Keys, though, has a strong history at Flushing Meadows, with a runner-up showing in 2017 and reaching the semi-finals in 2018 and 2023, where she led Sabalenka 6-0, 5-3 before falling.

If Zheng manages to get past Anisimova, she is projected to face either No 12 seed Daria Kasatkina or No 24 seed Donna Vekic in the fourth round, and the latter would be a rematch of the Olympic final.

First-round matches to watch: [7] Zheng Qinwen vs. [WC] Amanda Anisimova, Erika Andreeva vs. Yuan Yue, [14] Madison Keys vs. Katerina Siniakova, [Q] Maya Joint vs. Laura Siegemund, Magda Linette vs. [WC] Iva Jovic, Veronika Kudermetova vs. [33] Elise Mertens