Preview / Schedule US Open 2024 Day Six Saturday 31 August featuring Sinner, Swiatek, Medvedev and Pegula

Saturday, 31 August 2024 at 14:55

The US Open continues with Day 6, and once again, it’s going to be a good one with names like Jannik Sinner, Jessica Pegula, and Iga Swiatek out on the courts.

We’re slowly getting to that 2nd week of the US Open, which means that we’re getting better and better matchups as the best keep progressing through the draw. Saturday’s schedule will feature some big names out on the courts, so let’s take a look at who will play on Day 6 of the event. As always, we’re going to start with the Arthur Ashe programme and work our way down to the smaller courts.

Swiatek headlines Night Session

The first match on Ashe will begin at noon local time, which has been the case for all first matches on Ashe this week. It will feature an American tennis player, Jessica Pegula, who has been in superb form in recent weeks. She arrived in New York with a 9-1 record in her past 10 and so far has looked really solid in New York.

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Her opponent will be a Spanish player who did extremely well to make this round and is a danger due to how much power she can generate from the ground up. After that match, we’ll get another fascinating one as Jannik Sinner continues his US Open campaign with his opponent being Christopher O’Connell.

The Aussie has been a solid player at times, but for the most part, he’s going to be quite overmatched here. Sinner has just been amazing so far, and he’s likely to continue that here with another straight sets win. Anything but that would be a pretty major surprise.

The night session on Ashe will feature one player that doesn’t love playing at night, and it’s Iga Swiatek. The Polish player admitted a few times how she’s not particularly keen on night matches, but she’s going to have to play one this time around, and it’s a tricky one because she’s facing Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

While the Russian isn’t likely to beat Swiatek, she is the type of player that puts Swiatek under pressure. She’s an aggressive baseliner who can play amazing tennis at times but is very inconsistent with this. Swiatek’s consistency from the baseline should be enough to power her past the Russian, but you never know. Swiatek has shown some vulnerability this year. Even this week in New York, some players have been able to put some pressure on her, so overall, this could still be a pretty tricky encounter.

The final match in the night shift will feature Daniil Medvedev taking on Flavio Cobolli. Now, this has the potential to be a really fascinating matchup because Medvedev is always box office. He’ll just bring his personality with him, and that should be enough to make the match interesting. Cobolli is a fierce competitor who had his start in soccer before transitioning to tennis after an injury. He’s a really capable player and has been playing some really solid tennis in recent weeks, so this can be a really fascinating matchup.

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Paolini and Paul set for Louis Armstrong

The second biggest court at the US Open will feature five matches, which is again in line with how it was in the days before. Contrary to Arthur Ashe, the programme begins one hour earlier, and the first match on Day 6 will be between Yulia Putintseva and Jasmine Paolini. It’s an interesting matchup between two players who aren’t the tallest but bring a lot of passion to the tennis courts.

Both are in good form, as Paolini has had a career year, while Putintseva has looked really solid. Expect this one to bring long rallies and a lot of passion as both will be fancying their chances to win.

Jasmine Paolini will be one of those aiming to reach another fourth round.

The second match on Armstrong will feature another Italian, and it’s Sara Errani, who has been doing superb stuff so far at the US Open. Even in her best days over ten years ago, Errani wasn’t known as a very good hard court player, but she’s doing it now. Her opponent will be an in-form Diana Shnaider, who has looked really good, so that will be tough for Errani.

If she wins that one, then we can possibly talk about a swan song. For now, what’s certain is that they’re the second match of the day at Armstrong, and the rest will be seen. The third match will be another interesting one because we’re getting in-form Tommy Paul, who has been playing super solid tennis this year. In many ways, he’s been the best American overall, and that’s what the ranking says as well.

He’ll face Gabriel Diallo, who is a qualifier on a roll with some amazing wins such as the one over Arthur Fils. He’s a really strong server but nothing that Paul hasn’t seen before. The American is likely to assert that the US truly is better than Canada, at least in this matchup. The night shift on Armstrong will be pretty solid as well. We’ll start off with a matchup that possibly will last between 7 and 10 hours.

Alex de Minaur will be facing Dan Evans. These two players don’t mind playing long rallies; in fact, they might prefer it. De Minaur is all about running, and he likes to patiently build up points before finishing them off. Evans is a tremendous defender who has 15,000 types of slice he can use to achieve his goal of baiting an error.

It just promises to be a really long match, which is the last thing Evans needs after already breaking the record for the longest match ever at the US Open this year. He spent almost six hours on the court against Khachanov, and he’s looking at a pretty long one here as well.

The final match will be a WTA one, and it’s Haddad Maia taking on Anna Kalinskaya. It’s an interesting one between two players who can be crazy on their day, but we’ll see who gets the win this time around.

Muchova, Draper and Wozniacki on Grandstand

The third biggest court will also feature some pretty impressive matchups. In some ways, you could argue that this lineup is better than the one on Louis Armstrong, but we’ll see how things go. The first match is between Karolina Muchova and Anastasia Potapova, which is a pretty crazy matchup. Muchova did so well to beat Naomi Osaka, and that level should be enough for Anastasia Potapova, but the Russian is known as a streaky player.

It’s not impossible for her to turn it up and deliver a crazy performance, winning the match. Either way, it’s going to be a matchup that is must-see TV, so make sure to check that out. The next one will feature Jack Draper, who was quite lucky to see Botic van de Zandschulp advance because the alternative would have been Carlos Alcaraz.

Marvellous Muchova to shine again?

Draper’s chances are far higher against the Dutch player than against Alcaraz, even though Botic produced a legendary level to beat the Spaniard. We’ll see if he can back it up, but that win over Alcaraz certainly put everybody on notice. It was a wonderful display of tennis.

The next match will feature veteran Caroline Wozniacki. She’s once again been playing a really solid event. Nobody is really paying much attention to her, but she’s been playing super solid tennis lately, and it’s likely that it will continue because she’s heavily favoured to win this one. Ponchet has been solid this year, but she’s not really a player who you expect to keep doing well on this level.

The final match will be a proper clash of styles as Matteo Arnaldi will face Jordan Thompson. The Aussie produced a really good level to beat Hubert Hurkacz and has generally looked really solid this year. Arnaldi has been doing good stuff on hard courts for a while. He had a good run in New York last year, so this is hardly a surprise. He’s an aggressive baseliner who will bombard away, but Thompson is good enough to counter that.

Some other matches we have to mention are Goffin taking on Machac. These two have been pretty solid, and this is a good chance for both to secure another win. The matchup is favourable for both. Jakub Mensik has a chance to continue his solid run in New York. He did really well last year, and this year he’s facing Nuno Borges, who is not the toughest player to play, but you won’t be able to beat him without a good effort.

Another interesting matchup is between Ashlyn Krueger and Liudmila Samsonova. Things will be pretty simple in this one as they’ll trade blows from the baseline, and whoever does better will likely win the match.