Rennae Stubbs picks who is more likely to win the US Open this year out of Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka

Gauff is the fourth seed at the US Open, a tournament she won in 2023 with a final victory over Aryna Sabalenka.

Former WTA player Stubbs has now discussed their chances of success in New York, where Sabalenka is the two-time defending champion.

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Coco Gauff named as US Open ‘slight favorite’

On the latest episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, she was asked if Gauff is the favorite for the title.

Stubbs replied: “I think Coco is the slight favorite.

“I think Sabalenka is still up there only because, and she won today, I think that Sabalenka you have to think about because whenever you come back to a place that you’ve done very well at, which clearly she’s going for the three-peat here at the US Open, you have to think that she can still win this tournament.

“She’s so dangerous. Once she gets into the quarters, maybe in semis if she can, she’s still definitely the one to beat here.

“But I just think Coco, there’s something that switched in Cincinnati, and she got to the point where she did a couple of years ago when she actually won this tournament, when she won Cincinnati, but she won Washington, she did well in Canada. She had a great summer coming in here.

“But I feel like she’s kind of in that mode of not missing the forehand as much. The serve looks much better, so I give Gavin [MacMillan] a lot of credit there.

“But there’s no question that Coco is, I would say, equal favorite, and I think Iga is also a player up there that we’re not talking about a lot.

“Because I think Iga… Jess [Pegula], Iga [Swiatek, Coco, Sabalenka, [Elena] Rybakina I would say yes but she’s a question mark with the injury. I mean, those five are absolutely on par with one another when they’re at their best.”

Sabalenka, Pegula and Swiatek are all safely into the second round, while Rybakina meets Thea Frodin in her opener.

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Rennae Stubbs names Amanda Anisimova as US Open dark horse

Stubbs was also then tasked with discussing Pegula in more detail, but quickly moved on to another American hopeful.

When asked what it’s going to take for Pegula to finally get over the line, she responded: “I’ve already said it.

“Her second serve is always too vulnerable for me, and she has to get either serving very well, and she has improved her serve over the last 12 months.

“So I think that the serve is very important for her, and I think continuing to believe in herself, just like as we are watching Amanda Anisimova, who played very well today as well.

READ MORE: Amanda Anisimova must improve one area of her game to win the US Open title

“We haven’t talked about her, and I do think that her play last week, she lost a really, really, really tough match to Jess Pegula, and I think there’s something that’s switched.

“She’s gone back to her old coach, probably doesn’t have as much pressure on her shoulders as she did maybe going into Wimbledon, for example.

“Or at the start of the year. Because even I talked about how I thought she could win a major this year. Maybe she could be our dark horse.

“She could be the dark horse here. No one’s talking about Anisimova here, and I think she could be a dark horse.”

Anisimova lost last year’s US Open final to Sabalenka, with Pegula suffering the exact same fate the year before.