Elina Svitolina's hopes of becoming the US Open champion were dashed after she fell to a three-set defeat to Anna Kalinskaya in the third round at Flushing Meadows. 

Svitolina, who reached the semi-finals in New York back in 2019, was unable to repeat the trick as Kalinskaya won 6-2 2-6 6-3 to dump out the ninth seed. 

Both players struggled on serve, with the first five games of the opening set seeing breaks for both players, but Kalinskaya was able to get herself ahead on her third set point. 

Svitolina responded in the second, reeling off the final four games to force a decider, only for Kalinskaya to seize the initiative and book her place in the last 16 of the tournament. 

After being broken in the fifth game, Kalinskaya responded with back-to-back breaks of her own as she sealed her progression when a Svitolina return hit the net. 

Kalinskaya will now face Emma Navarro for a spot in the quarter-finals, with the American getting the better of seventh seed Karolina Muchova with a 6-3 7-5 triumph. 

A late night win in New York City

Kalinskaya defeats Svitolina in a three set match and moves on at the @usopen. #USOpen pic.twitter.com/pxmlvPFkiM

— wta (@WTA) September 5, 2026

Linda Noskova was also put through her paces by home hopeful Ann Li, but the Wimbledon champion prevailed thanks to a hard-fought 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 6-2 triumph. 

But in the doubles, there was no winning return for Serena and Venus Williams, who were beaten at the first hurdle in an enthralling match with Hao-Ching Chan and Maya Joint.

In what was the first time since the 2022 US Open that the sisters had teamed up at a major, Chan and Joint came out on top with an impressive 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 7-6 (10-7) win. 

Kalinskaya reaches new ground at the US Open

Never before had Kalinskaya gone beyond the third round at Flushing Meadows, but she was able to overcome that barrier here and reach her second fourth round at a major this season, following her run to the same stage at the French Open. 

And she has every reason to be confident of going even further in New York. Since 1990, Kalinskaya (45.5%, 15-18) holds the best career win rate against WTA top-10 opponents of any player not to have reached the WTA top 10 themselves – minimum 25 matches.

But Noskova is also looking strong following her triumph at Wimbledon. Since the start of the grass season (London and s'Hertogenbosch), only Jessica Pegula (20) has claimed more WTA-level main draw wins than Noskova (17). 

She has also already claimed 32 WTA-level main draw wins in 2026 – the second entire calendar year she has achieved more than 30 such wins after 2025 (37 at the end of the season), and she will not want to stop there.