Women's Singles | |
---|---|
2016 US Open | |
Champion | Angelique Kerber |
Runner-up | Karolína Plíšková |
Final score | 6–3, 4–6, 6–4 |
Draw | 128 (16Q / 8WC) |
Seeds | 32 |
Flavia Pennetta was the defending champion, but retired from professional tennis at the end of the 2015 season.
Angelique Kerber won the title, defeating Karolína Plíšková in the final, 6–3, 4–6, 6–4. It was Kerber's second Grand Slam singles title. She became the first German to win the US Open since Steffi Graf in 1996.
Serena Williams was attempting to set new Open Era records by winning a 23rd Grand Slam singles title and a second attempt to set a seventh US Open singles title, but she lost in the semifinals to Plíšková. In doing so, she remained with an overall of 22 Major titles shared with Graf and six US Open titles shared with Chris Evert.
At the start of the tournament, the top four seeds (Williams, Kerber, Garbiñe Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwańska) were in contention for the world No. 1 ranking. However, Muguruza and Radwańska were removed from contention after being defeated by eventual quarterfinalists Anastasija Sevastova and Ana Konjuh in the second and fourth rounds, respectively. Kerber attained the world No. 1 ranking for the first time following the tournament after defeating two-time finalist Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals following Serena Williams' semifinal loss.
Plíšková became the first Czech woman to make the US Open final since 1993, and only the fourth player to beat both of the Williams sisters in the same Grand Slam tournament (she beat Venus Williams in the fourth round).