The 2024 US Open draw is out, and features a slew of first-round blockbusters between some of the Hologic WTA Tour’s biggest names.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, the winner in 2018 and 2020, will take on No.10 seed Jelena Ostapenko in her first appearance at Flushing Meadows since becoming a mother. The pair have only played once, in the first round of Roland Garros 2016, the year before Ostapenko won her first major title there. Osaka won that match 6-4, 7-5.
Freshly-crowned Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen, the No.7 seed, will face wild card Amanda Anisimova for the first time. Anisimova has also been on the comeback trail in 2024 after taking a mental health break in 2023, and two weeks ago surged back into the Top 50 after reaching her first WTA 1000 final in Toronto.
No.5 seed Jasmine Paolini will face 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu in her opener. This is becoming a familiar match-up on the major stage this year: the pair played in the the third round of both Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Paolini won both encounters, and went on to reach her first two Grand Slam finals.
No.1 seed Iga Swiatek will face lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova in the first round, while No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka takes on qualifier Priscilla Hon. No.3 seed Coco Gauff is in Sabalenka’s half, and will open her title defense against Varvara Gracheva. No.4 seed Elena Rybakina is in Swiatek’s half, and will start against qualifier Destanee Aiava.
The bottom half, with Sabalenka and Gauff, will open play on Monday. The top half, with Swiatek and Rybakina, will get started on Tuesday.
Click here to view the full draw. Here’s how the four quarters break down:
First quarter
Swiatek’s projected quarterfinal opponent is the in-form No.6 seed Jessica Pegula, the Toronto champion and Cincinnati runner-up this month. Pegula will have to navigate a stacked section of her own first, though.
She opens against fellow American Shelby Rogers, with the winner guaranteed to face a former Grand Slam champion in the second round: either 2021 US Open winner Emma Raducanu or 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin. Raducanu and Kenin will be playing for the first time.
Whoever emerges from that cluster could face a dangerous big hitter in the fourth…