A set down before the numbers turned
Karolina Pliskova lost the opening set 6-2 to Hanne Vandewinkel on Sunday at Flushing Meadows. She won the next two, 7-5 and 6-3, and the first round of the US Open kept one of its more familiar names in the draw.
The Belgian had the first set in hand quickly. From 2-6 down, Pliskova took twelve of the remaining twenty games, and the closer of those two sets, the 7-5, was where the match actually turned. Vandewinkel served to stay in it and could not.
Three-set wins in the first round of a major tend to cost something later in the week. Pliskova has been on the other side of that arithmetic often enough to know it.
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Ten years on from the final
New York is where her career changed shape. In 2016 she arrived without a Grand Slam quarter-final to her name, beat Serena Williams in the semi-finals, and lost the final to Angelique Kerber. That fortnight pushed her towards the top of the rankings. She reached world No. 1 in July 2017 and held it for eight weeks.
A decade later she is 34 and starting majors on the outside courts. The 2016 run remains her best at Flushing Meadows, alongside the Wimbledon final she lost to Ashleigh Barty in 2021. Two Grand Slam finals, no title.
What the win is worth
Reaching the second round guarantees $190,000 against the $140,000 paid to first-round losers. The 2026 tournament carries a record purse of $108 million, up twenty percent on last year, with $5.5 million for each singles champion.
The women’s draw is headed by Aryna Sabalenka, chasing a third consecutive title in New York, which no woman has managed since Serena Williams won three in a row from 2012 to 2014. Elena Rybakina is seeded second, Jessica Pegula third, Coco Gauff fourth.
First-round matches run through Tuesday, September 1.
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