Sabalenka vs Noskova: US Open QF Three-Peat

Aryna Sabalenka is chasing a third straight US Open title when she meets No. 6 Linda Noskova on Arthur Ashe in Tuesday's day session. The top seed has not dropped a set in New York. She is still hunting her first major of 2026 after missing an Australian Open three-peat last year. Noskova is the fresh Wimbledon champion standing in the doorway.

Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 2-0, including an Indian Wells semifinal on the way to the Sunshine Double. She is not treating that history like a free pass. "Linda (is) another great player. Just won Wimbledon, really aggressive style of the game. Serving really well, playing super fast," Sabalenka said via Reuters. "You've got to stay really low to be able to handle that power and energy." She also admitted those prior meetings "wasn't the easiest matches."

Noskova's hardcourt memory

Hardcourts used to be Noskova's favorite surface. Then she won Wimbledon. Then she needed six match points to finish Marta Kostyuk 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 and reach this quarterfinal. She remembers both meetings with Sabalenka as different tests, with Indian Wells the close one she still lost.

"We did play two matches. Two of them were very different," Noskova said. "The last one in Indian Wells, it was a tough one, a close one, but she did well. She won the whole thing, just as she has been winning here for the last two years." She also said she knows Sabalenka's game even without recent film study. That is not soft talk. That is a Wimbledon champ bracing for "fast tennis" against the woman who swept Indian Wells and Miami in March.

Ashe day, three-peat math

Tuesday's Ashe slate opens with Sabalenka-Noskova before the all-American Tiafoe-Michelsen match. For Sabalenka, this is the first real stress test of a set-free Flushing run and a chance to keep the three-peat alive. For Noskova, it is a chance to prove the grass title was not a one-surface fluke. One of them leaves with a semifinal and a louder New York story.