Robin Montgomery Beats The Rain, Carson Branstine To Reach U.S. Open Main Draw

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

Robin Montgomery rallied from a set down Thursday to defeat Canada’s Carson Branstine 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the final round of U.S. Open qualifying to earn a place in the 2026 U.S. Open women’s singles main draw.

The win, completed just before rain postponed all but seven of the 32 final-round qualifying matches on the men’s and women’s draws, completed a particularly impressive qualifying campaign for Montgomery. She opened with a dominant 6-1, 6-1 victory over Canadian Kayla Cross before defeating Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme 7-5, 6-3 in the second round. 

But the biggest challenge came against Branstine, the former standout player from Texas A&M. Originally ranked in the top 200, Branstine saw her ranking drop to No. 565 having not played since the Australian Open with an injury..

The two split sets before the match was suspended due to rain, but Montgomery returned to the court and never lost momentum.

What makes Montgomery’s achievement particularly compelling is that her U.S. Open qualifying run is another chapter in her own comeback story.  The 21 year old from Washington, D.C. and a product of the revered Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland first burst onto the international tennis scene as a teenager. She made her U.S. Open women’s singles main-draw debut at just 15 years old in 2020, and she returned to the main draw in 2023. As a junior, she produced an extraordinary performance at the 2021 U.S. Open, sweeping both the girls’ singles and doubles championships. 

Then came the setback.

After breaking into the WTA Top 100 in April 2025, Montgomery was sidelined for approximately nine months with an ankle injury. When this year’s U.S. Open qualifying tournament began, she was still trying to re-establish herself on the professional circuit. 

Her comeback, though, has been remarkable.

After returning to competition in March, Montgomery won her first WTA title at the Libema Open and subsequently qualified for Wimbledon, where she nearly defeated former Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini, as I wrote about here: https://worldtennismagazine.com/despite-heartbreaking-wimbledon-loss-to-jasmine-paolini-robin-montgomery-is-on-the-rise-again-on-the-wta-tour/

Now she has qualified for the U.S. Open — putting herself back on the biggest stage in American tennis.