The 141st edition of the US Open gets underway on August 30th, but who are this year’s favourites for the title?

With full capacity crowds expected, the fourth and final major of this calendar year promises to deliver a thrilling atmosphere.

Japanese star Naomi Osaka is the defending champion, while Australia’s Ashleigh Barty is the top seed heading into the tournament.

There are plenty of feasible contenders though, not least Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, teenage prodigy Coco Gauff and former world number one Simona Halep.

While this year’s field is stacked with top talents, we’ve narrowed it down to five favourites for this year’s competition.

Ashleigh Barty

It’s hard to look past Barty as the frontrunner for this year’s US Open. Aside from being the world’s top-ranked player, she is arguably in the form of her life, having won five titles so far in 2021.

The 25-year-old claimed her second major at Wimbledon last month and won the Southern and Western Open recently to ensure she has now won an event on every surface this season.

Former British number one, Tim Henman, told GiveMeSport Women why he backs Barty to go all the way at Flushing Meadows.

“I was a huge fan of hers before Wimbledon, but became an even bigger fan afterwards… she’s backing it up on hardcourts now as well, so there’s no doubt in my mind she goes into the US Open as the clear favourite.”