COLUMN - The US Open is finally here — and these are the Women’s Matches I can’t wait to watch

There is nothing quite like the first Sunday of the US Open. For months, the tennis calendar has been moving toward New York. We went through Australia, clay, Roland Garros, grass, Wimbledon and the North American hard courts. We watched rankings rise and fall, players get hurt and come back, teenagers announce themselves and former champions rediscover pieces of their old games.

And now, finally, the main draw begins. The beauty of the first round of a Grand Slam is the sheer excess of it. There is too much tennis. That is the point.

You can walk around the grounds at Flushing Meadows and stumble into a match on an outside court that would be perfectly capable of serving as a semifinal somewhere else. A former Grand Slam champion can be playing 50 yards away from a teenager you’ve barely seen before. Someone you’ve followed for years can suddenly be in enormous trouble before lunch. This year’s women’s draw is absolutely loaded with those matches.

Before getting to them, though, I’ll make my prediction.

I’m picking Iga Swiatek. That may look slightly contrarian with Swiatek seeded eighth, but I’m not particularly interested in the number beside her name.

I’m interested in the tennis she’s bringing to New York. Swiatek won Toronto, beating Elena Rybakina in the final, and carried a 10-match winning streak into her Cincinnati semifinal against Jessica Pegula. After a difficult first half of the season by her standards, she suddenly looks dangerous on hard courts again.

And there are questions surrounding several of the women above her. Aryna Sabalenka is trying to win a third consecutive US Open after a difficult second half of the season. Rybakina comes into New York with an injury question. Coco Gauff is playing terrific tennis, and there are several other women I can easily imagine holding the trophy two weeks from now. But Swiatek has something I value enormously at a Grand Slam: when she finds her level, she can make very good players look as though they’re playing the wrong sport.

She’s already won here, in 2022. She knows what seven matches in New York require. And I think she’s going to win seven more. Now for the fun part.

Forget rankings for a moment. These are the matches I want to watch.

What an uncomfortable first round for Krejcikova. Rakhimova isn’t someone you want to see when you’re still trying to settle into a major, and Krejcikova remains one of those players whose best tennis can be beautiful but whose matches can become complicated very quickly.

Fernandez in New York will always have a little extra electricity because of what happened here in 2021. Zhang, meanwhile, has been around long enough to be completely unimpressed by the occasion. This feels like the sort of first round that could become extremely interesting if Fernandez doesn’t establish herself early.

This is exactly the kind of matchup I love at a Slam. Navarro is seeded and established. Boisson is dangerous enough that nobody should treat this as a routine opening assignment. There is no easing your way into the tournament here. Then we get to Monday. And Monday has two absolute beauties.

This may be the best first-round match in the entire women’s draw. Zheng had to qualify just to get here after injuries sent her ranking tumbling. She won three matches to make the main draw, including a 6-0 final set in her qualifying finale. She has also reached the US Open quarterfinals twice.

Her reward? Kristina Liutova. The 16-year-old arrives after winning Memphis as a qualifier and then qualifying for the US Open herself.

Seriously? This is a first-round match? Zheng could make a deep run in this tournament. Liutova might be one of the players we’re talking about for years. One of them will be gone immediately.

Another total gem. Townsend is seeded 20th, playing at home and capable of creating tennis that looks unlike almost anything else on the women’s tour. Chwalinska gives her a completely different problem. I don’t know whether this will be a two-set match, a three-set match or something wonderfully strange. I just know I’m watching it.

And then there’s this. Volynets comes into New York directly from a terrific week at the WTA 125 in Philadelphia, the City of Sisterly Love, where she won her first WTA title on Saturday afternoon. Waiting for her in New York is Linda Noskova, the No. 6 seed and reigning Wimbledon champion. That’s brutal. For both of them It’s also exactly why the first round of the US Open is so much fun.

Another one where the name without the seed is every bit as interesting as the name with it. Valentova is still only 19 and is already knocking very loudly on the door. Potapova isn’t going to give her anything. This could be excellent. Tuesday isn’t exactly giving us a chance to recover.

Five years ago, you could have told me this was going to be the final of a major and I would have believed you. Instead, one of them is going home in the first round. Both have experienced the highs and lows of professional tennis. Both have been among the best players in the world. Both know how to win matches at this level. There is something almost cruel about seeing this matchup sitting in Round 1.

I cannot wait for this. Forget everything else you’re doing when these two walk onto court. Ostapenko wants to hit through the court. Maria would presumably prefer to make the court feel like it was constructed specifically to irritate Ostapenko. Power. Slice. Rhythm changes. Frustration. Creativity.Potential chaos. Sign me up.

Here’s another match where the rankings don’t tell the story particularly well. Sakkari has spent years around the top of women’s tennis. Montgomery has the kind of athleticism and upside that makes her dangerous whenever she gets an opportunity like this. This is not an easy first round for Sakkari. Not remotely.

And finally:

I’m calling the upset. Knutson came through qualifying without dropping a set, beating Varvara Lepchenko, Dominika Salkova and Ekaterine Gorgodze to earn her place in the main draw. Now she gets Lys. I’m taking Knutson. That’s part of what makes the opening days of the US Open irresistible. Everyone comes to New York talking about Sabalenka, Gauff, Swiatek, Pegula and the other stars who might still be standing on the final weekend. They should.

But Grand Slams aren’t only made by the players who survive until the end. They’re made by the matches we didn’t expect to care about, played on courts we didn’t initially intend to visit, involving players we might not have watched closely enough before.

For three days, almost everybody is still alive. There are 64 women’s first-round matches. There are future champions, former champions, qualifiers, teenagers, veterans, comeback stories and players who have spent their entire careers trying to reach exactly this stage.

Somewhere among them will be the match everyone is talking about by Tuesday night. The main draw gates are opening. Finally.