US Open Women's Singles Tips - Will Ash Barty triumph in New York?

The Aussie world No.1’s sparkling 2021 season just keeps getting better. After winning the Yarra Valley Classic, Miami Open and Stuttgart Open, Barty bounced back from an early French Open exit with a stunning Wimbledon triumph. The 25-year-old was upset in the first round at the Olympics but responded by taking out the Cincinnati Masters. Barty’s versatile all-round game and steely mindset are setting her apart from her contemporaries at present. Clearly the player to beat given her consistently high level of form over the past seven months.

After completing the US Open-Australian Open double for the second time in late-2020/early-2021 (she also did it 2018-19), it’s been a rollercoaster few months for the 23-year-old phenom to say the least. Mental health challenges saw her pull out of the French Open in the second round and miss Wimbledon altogether. Osaka returned at the Tokyo Olympics – exiting in the third round – and has since gone down to Jil Teichmann in the Round of 16 in Cincinnati. The key is shutting out the noise and getting to the second week: all four times Osaka has made it past the fourth round of a Grand Slam, she’s gone on to lift the trophy.

Swiatek had the tennis world at her feet after carving out an astonishingly dominant French Open victory as a teenager last year. But the Polish wunderkind is already at something of a Grand Slam crossroads, chalking up fourth-round exits at the Australian Open and Wimbledon either side of a quarter-final loss in her Roland Garros title defence in 2021. A first-round loss to Ons Jabeur at the Cincinnati Masters was a less than ideal lead-in, but Swiatek did prove her hard-court chops earlier this season by winning the Adelaide International.

The Canadian returns to the scene of her remarkable 2019 Grand Slam triumph, when she stunned Serena Williams in a straight-sets demolition. Incredibly, it remains the only time Andreescu has made it past the second round at a major. She miss all three Slams in 2020 – including her title defence in New York – and exited in the first round at the recent French Open and Wimbledon. Aside from a charge to the Miami Open final, her 2021 form has largely underwhelmed; early exits in Montreal and Cincinnati aren’t exactly portents for another US Open success. But the 21-year-old powerhouse can be a threat if she can build some elusive momentum during the first week.

Injuries have plagued the two-time Grand Slam winner lately, forcing her to pull out of the French Open (where she was the favourite) and Wimbledon. After returning with a first-round loss in Montreal, she pulled out of her second-round Cincinnati Open fixture with a small abductor tear. Halep has also endured a poor run at the US Open since her semi-final appearance in 2015 and a quarter-final year in 2016. Yet few players would be looking forward to seeing the pugnacious Romanian on the other side of the net. As dangerous as any player in the draw is she can shake her niggles and get a roll on.

The US Open has produced four first-time Grand Slam winners in the past six years. Arguably no player in world tennis is due more than Pliskova to continue that trend. The 29-year-old Czech made a breakout run to the 2016 final at Flushing Meadows. After a couple of a seasons of underwhelming performances at majors, she reached this year’s Wimbledon final and pushed Barty hard in a three-set loss. Pliskova’s hard-court build-up has been impressive, making it to the Canadian Open final and the semis at the Cincinnati Masters.

World No.12 Bencic has largely failed to deliver on her huge promise at Grand Slam level. But both of her runs beyond the fourth round at majors came at the US Open. She made a quarter-final appearance in 2014 and a semi-final charge in 2019. A finalist at the Adelaide International and German Open so far in 2021, Bencic is riding high after winning an individual gold medal for Switzerland at the Tokyo Olympics. The 24-year-old continued her strong hard-court form with a semi-final showing at the Cincinnati Masters.