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Sofia Kenin beat Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6(6) in an all-American, all-wild-card first round that finished at 2.01am, the latest conclusion to a first-round match in US Open history. It was Williams’ 26th appearance at the tournament and possibly her last singles match at a major. Kamilla Rakhimova’s 7-6(4), 6-2 win over 27th seed Barbora Krejcikova was the only seeded casualty in the women’s draw; Jessica Pegula, Elina Svitolina, Marta Kostyuk, Jasmine Paolini, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Leylah Fernandez all advanced.
New York, United States: Venus Williams walked out onto Arthur Ashe Stadium ten minutes past midnight, which is to say she began her 26th US Open on the second day of it.
The Djokovic–Navone match before it had run four hours and 36 minutes. Organisers wanted to move the women’s match to Louis Armstrong Stadium. Both players said they would rather stay on Ashe, so a thinned-out crowd stayed with them.
Midnight on Ashe
Kenin needed 32 minutes for the first set. Williams, 46 and playing on a wild card 29 years after reaching the final here as a teenager, looked like she was heading for a quick exit.
Then the second set turned into something. Williams was down 4-2, found her range, and dragged it back to a tiebreak while the remaining spectators woke up. She had seven set points in the set and Kenin saved every one of them. Kenin won the last six points of the match, and it ended with Williams putting a ball into the net, the tiebreak going 8-6.
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It finished at 2.01am, one hour and 48 minutes after it started and later than any first-round match in the tournament’s history. It was also the only first-round match in either draw between two former Grand Slam champions.
What It Might Mean
Williams has not won a singles match since Washington in July 2025. She has now lost six in a row at the US Open, dating back to her first-round win here in 2019.
She was not willing to discuss whether that was the last of it, saying she did not think she should have to. She plays doubles with Serena later this week, also on a wild card, and said her mind was on recovering from what she called a completely insane evening.
Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion and French Open runner-up that same year, had won six of her first 26 matches in 2026 and had lost all five of her previous US Open night-session matches. She plays Jessica Pegula next.
Rakhimova Takes the Only Seed
Seven seeds played on Sunday and six won. The exception was Barbora Krejcikova, a two-time major champion, beaten 7-6(4), 6-2 by Kamilla Rakhimova.
Rakhimova needed seven match points. Krejcikova, who had saved eight in her previous meeting with Taylor Townsend, fought off six of them before Rakhimova finally converted, having won the last five games. She said afterwards she had watched the highlights of that Townsend match and had been trying not to think about it.
Pegula Never Broken
Third seed Jessica Pegula, the 2024 runner-up here, wasted eight break points in the third game against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, broke two games later, and won 6-3, 6-2 without losing her serve.
Elina Svitolina took 52 minutes to beat Solana Sierra 6-1, 6-2 in the first night session on Armstrong. The ninth seed is 9-2 in her last 11 Grand Slam openers and her 117 major wins are the most by any Ukrainian in the Open era. Marta Kostyuk, a semi-finalist at the last two majors, beat Storm Hunter 6-4, 6-1 in 67 minutes.
Jasmine Paolini had the hardest afternoon of the seeded winners, dropping the second set to Veronika Erjavec before coming through 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 with 36 winners against 27 unforced errors. Ekaterina Alexandrova and Leylah Fernandez won in straight sets.
Pliskova’s Nine Games
The comeback of the day happened on Court 12. Karolina Pliskova, unseeded and a former world No. 1, trailed Hanne Vandewinkel 6-2, 5-2 and faced a match point. She won nine games in a row and took it 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 in two and a half hours. She has now reached the second round in each of her last ten US Opens, a run containing a final and five quarter-finals.
Elsewhere Katie Boulter, Donna Vekic, Wang Xinyu, Lucrezia Stefanini and Polina Iatcenko all advanced. The rest of the draw starts on Monday: two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka opens against Camila Osorio, with Naomi Osaka, Iga Swiatek, Sloane Stephens and Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova also on the schedule. Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Pegula and Coco Gauff are all in contention for the world No. 1 ranking by the end of the fortnight.
First-round results — US Open, women’s singles, day one
S. Kenin d. V. Williams 6-2, 7-6(6)
[3] J. Pegula d. E.-G. Ruse 6-3, 6-2
[9] E. Svitolina d. S. Sierra 6-1, 6-2
[11] M. Kostyuk d. S. Hunter 6-4, 6-1
[18] E. Alexandrova d. M. Kessler 6-2, 6-2
[19] J. Paolini d. V. Erjavec 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
[31] L. Fernandez d. S. Zhang 6-3, 6-2
K. Rakhimova d. [27] B. Krejcikova 7-6(4), 6-2
K. Pliskova d. H. Vandewinkel 2-6, 7-5, 6-3
K. Boulter d. C. Y. S. Lee 6-4, 3-6, 6-0
D. Vekic d. T. Gibson 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
L. Stefanini d. D. Yastremska 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
X. Wang d. E. Arango 6-4, 6-2
P. Iatcenko d. R. Zarazua 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(7)
