Former US Open champion Naomi Osaka faces last year's semi-finalist Karolina Muchova in Thursday's second-round tussle.
The two-time champion defeated Jelena Ostapenko on Tuesday to set up a meeting with her Czechia opponent, who got the better of American Katie Volynets in straight sets.
Match preview
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In a battle of previous Grand Slam champions on Tuesday, Osaka prevailed over 2017 French Open winner Ostapenko, defeating the Latvian 6-3, 6-2 to avoid a first-round exit.
A tournament-opening loss marked the Japanese star's last experience of competing in New York, and she aimed to put that 2022 defeat by Danielle Collins behind her on her return to Queens.
Having done that successfully, the 26-year-old now seeks to overcome her second-round hoodoo at Slams, after being eliminated in round two at the last two leading events at Wimbledon and in Paris following a first-round exit in her return tournament Down Under in Australia.
Fresh off her first win over a top-10 player in four years, the Wild Card hopes to build on that victory over Ostapenko, keen to advance into the third round of a Major since her run in Australia two years back.
However, the World No. 88 faces another daunting opponent in Muchova in her bid to avoid another round-two loss at a Slam.
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Last year's semi-finalist returns to Queens seeking to replicate her best run at the US Open when she bounced back from consecutive first-round eliminations in 2021 and 2022 to advance to the last four before losing to eventual champion Coco Gauff.
The 10th seed last year ended 2023 ranked No. 8 in the world, but wrist surgery sidelined the Czechia player for about 10 months, seeing her miss the opening Majors of 2024 before returning at Wimbledon.
Now ranked 52nd in the world, the 28-year-old bounced back from a tournament-opening defeat at the Championships to record her first Slam win in nearly a year by defeating Volynets 6-3, 7-5 on Tuesday.
Like Osaka, Muchova's form since returning has been mixed — she reached the quarter-final in Eastbourne pre-Wimbledon, lost in the first round at the Championships and advanced to the final of the clay court event in Palermo before the Olympics but exited in the opening round at the Paris Games.
Her hard-court return was then marked by a second-round loss to Jessica Pegula in Cincinnati in the lead-up to the final Major of the year, where she hopes to beat a former champion and progress into round three at Osaka's expense.
Tournament so far
Naomi Osaka:
First round: vs. Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-2
Karolina Muchova:
First round: vs. Katie Volynets 6-3 7-5
Head To Head
Cincinnati Open (2020) - Round of 32: Osaka 6-7[5] 6-4 6-2
Madrid Open (2021) - Round of 32: Muchova 6-4 3-6 6-1
Both players have faced off twice on the WTA Tour, with Osaka winning their first match-up in Cincinnati four years ago — a three-set thriller — but Muchova levelled their head-to-head at the Madrid Open the following year, also victorious in three sets.
Osaka's win-loss record in 2024 is 18-15, while Muchova has a superior win rate this year with seven wins and three losses, albeit from a smaller sample size.
We say: Osaka to win in three sets
Much has changed for both players since their last meeting on the clay courts in Madrid three years ago, with Osaka taking a break from the sport due to the birth of her daughter, Shai, and Muchova, a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2021, French Open finalist in 2023 and US Open semi-finalist last year battling a 10-month absence due to wrist surgery.
While this second-round tussle could go either way, we are backing the Japanese, who had looked forward to reaching her best level at the US Open, to topple her comparatively undercooked opponent in three sets.
