Tennis-Zheng and Rybakina among U.S. Open contenders in wide open women's draw

By Karl Plume

(Reuters) - Injuries, slumps and the lack of a tennis force of nature like Serena Williams have left the women's field at the season's final Grand Slam wide open.

The U.S. Open has not witnessed a successful defence of the women's crown since Williams won three straight titles at Flushing Meadows from 2012 to 2014.

Unless defending champ Coco Gauff can turn around a recent bumpy streak, that trend looks likely to continue.

"On the women's side, it is very open," said six-time U.S. Open champion turned ESPN tennis analyst Chris Evert.

"I do think that everyone's getting a little tired and it's been a long year," she said. "I can't say who's going to win with any kind of conviction right now."

Olympic gold medallist and world No. 7 Qinwen Zheng will look to build on her triumph on clay at the Paris Games, where she dispatched top-ranked Iga Swiatek in straight sets en route to an historic singles tennis title for her native China.

A quarter-finals appearance in the 2023 U.S. Open followed by a runner-up finish in this year's Australian Open are testament to the Chinese 21-year-old's hard court acumen.

Victory in New York would stamp her card as the best Chinese singles player since two-times major champion Li Na.

Jasmine Paolini's women's doubles gold medal in Paris with Sara Errani -- Italy's first-ever tennis gold -- soothed some of the sting of her singles defeat by unseeded Romanian Ana Bogdan at the Games.

But the fifth-ranked Paolini is eager to finally break through for a Grand Slam singles title at Flushing Meadows after runner-up finishes at Wimbledon and Roland Garros this year.

Kazakh Elena Rybakina is looking to notch up her second Grand Slam title since claiming the Wimbledon crown in 2022.

But the U.S. Open's hard courts have so far vexed the big-serving world No. 4, and Rybakina has advanced no further than the round of 32 in five previous showings in New York.

Eager to bounce back after withdrawing from the Paris Games due to illness and crashing out of her first Cincinnati Open match, Rybakina hopes to regain momentum from a quarter-finals showing at Roland Garros in June followed by a Wimbledon semi-finals appearance.

Gauff headlines a strong slate of American women, with five ranked in the top 15 in the world for the first time in two decades.

Fresh from a runner-up showing in Cincinnati, sixth-ranked Jessica Pegula is looking to rebound in New York, while Danielle Collins, ranked 11th in the world, will be playing in her final Grand Slam after announcing that she will retire at the end of this season.

(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; editing by Clare Fallon)