LEARNING
No.2 seed Ashleigh Barty is 3-1 against No.30 seed Maria Sakkari, including 2-0 this season and once in the US Open series – a 5-7, 6-2, 6-0 victory for the Australian in the Cincinnati quarterfinals two weeks ago to go with her 7-5, 6-1 win in the third round of the Australian Open. Sakkari’s sole win came last year, 6-4, 6-2, in the second round of Indian Wells. The Greek player is 0-6 in Grand Slam third rounds – the most times any active player has reached this stage without getting to the fourth round (tied with María José Martínez Sánchez, now solely a doubles player). A second-week debut for her would also be the first time a Greek woman has reached the fourth round of a major since Eleni Daniilidou at the 2004 US Open.
No.5 seed Elina Svitolina and No.32 seed Dayana Yastremska will clash for the first time in an intergenerational all-Ukrainian derby, the second all-Ukrainian Grand Slam third round in history following Svitolina’s defeat of Marta Kostyuk at the Australian Open last year. Svitolina is 4-0 against compatriots at Tour level, and indeed her last loss to a fellow Ukrainian was in an ITF W50 event in Nantes in 2012, where Olga Savchuk defeated her 6-4, 2-6 7-5 in the second round. By contrast, this will be the first time Yastremska – who will be bidding for her first Top 10 win – has faced a countrywoman in a WTA-level main draw.
No.10 seed Madison Keys and No.20 seed Sofia Kenin have played twice before, both this year, with Kenin winning 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of Rome and Keys gaining revenge with a 7-5, 6-4 triumph two weeks ago in the Cincinnati semifinals. Keys is seeking to make the second week of the US Open for the fifth year running.
Karolina Muchova, who faces No.8 seed Serena Williams for the first time, has four Top 20 wins under her belt – all at Slams. The Czech first turned heads at last year’s US Open when, as a qualifier ranked World No.202, she upset Garbiñe Muguruza; since then, she has also defeated Anett Kontaveit at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon as well as scoring a career-best win over Karolina Pliskova to make the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
No.18 seed Wang Qiang is one of only two players in the Top 20 yet to reach the second week of a major (along with Bianca Andreescu), and is seeking to rectify that against Fiona Ferro, who is making her debut at the third-round stage. Wang, who is 0-3 in Grand Slam third rounds so far, leads the head-to-head against the Frenchwoman 3-1, including 2-1 this year and once last week, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of The Bronx. The Chinese No.1 also beat Ferro 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the Australian Open in January, but lost 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3 in the second round of Strasbourg on clay.
