The U.S. Women’s Bowling Open kicks off Wednesday with a historic top prize and a teenage star ready to compete for it.

Jillian Martin and the rest of the U.S. Open field will vie for the $100,000 award, the first six-figure first-place prize in the history of professional women’s bowling. Twenty-four bowlers will advance to round-robin match play, and those who make it to the championship round will compete for the title on CBS Sports Network on Aug. 31.

Martin, a 17-year-old from Stow, Ohio, is entering the U.S. Open with confidence after a history-making year on the Professional Women’s Bowling Association (PWBA) Tour

After finishing as a runner-up at the PWBA ITRC Classic and in third place at the PWBA Hall of Fame Classic in January, Martin broke into the winner’s circle. Two weeks ago, she became the youngest bowler ever to win a PWBA Tour event when she captured the 2021 PWBA BowlTV Classic.

“I’ve obviously worked toward different goals, but winning the BowlTV Classic and becoming the youngest to win a professional women’s tournament has been the biggest one out of all of them,” Martin told Just Women’s Sports. “To just be able to go up there and do what I do and end up coming out with success has been amazing.”

Martin’s rise to the top of the sport has come quickly, giving her little time to process it all. She’s been able to lean on veteran bowlers like Rocio Restrepo, who lives near her in Ohio, as well as her family and support systems at Storm and I Am Bowling, where she is a staff member.

“I felt like I had a lot of people behind me in that moment,” she said of winning the BowlTV Classic on Aug. 10.

That group includes Martin’s great uncle, who first introduced her to the sport and taught her “how to legitimately bowl,” as she puts it. He helped her understand the complexity of the rules, and she fell in love with the challenge of strategizing to win.

Having a bowling alley close to her family’s home in Stow helped. But until she decided to enter the 2019 U.S. Open on a whim and realized she could compete with the best the sport has to offer, Martin hadn’t considered turning bowling into a career.

“It was one of those things that I had a lot of fun out here and I had a lot of fun competing, so I just wanted to see where that took me,” she said.

The moment 17-year-old Jillian Martin of Stow, Ohio, realized she'd just become the youngest bowler in history to win a PWBA Tour event!

Martin, the top seed for the finals, defeated England's Verity Crawley, 221-188, in the title match of the 2021 PWBA BowlTV Classic. pic.twitter.com/wBnTLhfFec

— PWBA Tour (@PWBATour) August 11, 2021

As Martin enters the U.S. Open this week, she’s focused on playing to her strengths, getting a read on the lanes and remaining confident in her game. The high school senior takes her role as an ambassador for the sport seriously, especially as her celebrity rises. But she also doesn’t want to forget to have fun.

“I like to share my story and just kind of get the word out about bowling in general, too,” she said. “I think it’s really important that other people can learn about our sport and understand what it has to offer.

“I think it’s a really key thing just to grow the sport of bowling, and I love every minute of it.”

Seattle added some new hardware on Sunday, installing an eight-foot, 650-pound bronze statue of Storm icon Sue Bird outside Climate Pledge Arena — making Bird the first-ever WNBA player immortalized by a former franchise.

Unveiled ahead of Sunday's Storm clash with the Phoenix Mercury, the statue depicts Bird mid-layup in a nod to the legendary player's first and last made-shots for Seattle.

"People keep asking me what it feels like to be the first, and the truth is I never set out to be first at anything," Bird said during the ceremony. "But if being the first means that I won't be the last, if this statue means that 20 years from now there will be statues of other WNBA greats... then I'm proud to be the first."

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Bird played her entire 21-year WNBA career with the Storm, leading the team to four championships (2004, 2010, 2018, 2020) before calling it quits at the end of the 2022 season. The 13-time All-Star still stands as the league's career assists leader.

"I hope [this statue] tells a simple story that greatness isn't about being perfect. It's about being persistent," added Bird, who purchased a minority stake in the 2000 expansion team after she retired. "That you can be true to yourself and still achieve extraordinary things, and that when a city believes in you, anything is possible."

"Sue's legacy isn't just written in championships — it's woven into the fabric of Seattle," Storm president and CEO Alisha Valavanis said in a statement. "Her leadership transcended basketball and helped shape a cultural shift — one that expanded who gets to lead, who gets seen, and who gets celebrated."

The WNBA is taking a weekend road trip, as the No. 2 Atlanta Dream and No. 8 Seattle Storm head across the border to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the league's first-ever in-season Canada Game on Friday night.

The game features a rematch of Atlanta's 85-75 win over the Storm on Wednesday, with the win propelling the Dream up the WNBA standings — and threatening to drop Seattle out of postseason contention entirely.

"Time is running out, and the team knows it," Seattle head coach Noelle Quinn said earlier this week. "I didn't want to put so much pressure on them, but they know the situation, and they understand the urgency."

While Friday marks the first regular-season WNBA matchup played outside the US, the league has previously staged two preseason games in Canada, tipping off in Toronto in 2023 and Edmonton in 2024 — both in front of sold-out crowds.

Toronto's 2023 exhibition appeared to serve as a trial run for expansion, with the league awarding the Canadian city its first franchise — the 2026-incoming Toronto Tempo — earlier this year.

While plans for a formal move to Vancouver hasn't yet surfaced, the WNBA's explosive popularity and rapid growth outlook provide plenty of room for new markets to enter the conversation.

How to watch the 2025 WNBA Canada Game

The No. 8 Seattle Storm and No. 2 Atlanta Dream will square off inside Vancouver's Rogers Arena at 10 PM ET on Friday night.

Live coverage of the WNBA Canada Game clash will air on ION.

Coming off a series of strategic transactions, the No. 10 Washington Mystics will forge ahead on Friday night, taking on the short-staffed No. 6 Indiana Fever with a chance to play spoiler as they reshape their 2025 expectations from below the postseason cutoff line.

"There's just so many different success stories with this group," Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson said following Washington's 88-83 loss to the No. 7 Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday.

The Mystics have lost five of their last six games, and will take the court on Friday without injured new addition Jacy Sheldon and starting center Shakira Austin.

While Washington exceeded this year's early-season projections — skyrocketing above the playoff line behind leading scorer Brittney Sykes and the dynamic rookie duo of Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron — the now-fading Mystics chose to shift gears at the trade deadline, sending Sykes to the No. 8 Seattle Storm and shipping second-year forward Aaliyah Edwards off to the No. 13 Connecticut Sun.

With their natural 2026 draft pick secured, Washington has a shot at adding a top first-round prospect should they play out the rest of the regular season at the bottom of the WNBA standings — in other words, by strategically tanking the final weeks of 2025 play.

On the other hand, the injury-laden Indiana enters Friday's action eyeing a win after falling to the No. 11 Dallas Wings by just one point on Tuesday.

How to watch the Washington Mystics vs. Indiana Fever on Friday

The No. 10 Mystics will take on the No. 6 Fever in Indianapolis at 7:30 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage airing on ION.

A top-table battle headlines the NWSL this weekend, as the No. 1 Kansas City Current hosts the No. 2 Orlando Pride for a possible postseason rehearsal on Saturday.

Led by Golden Boot frontrunner Temwa Chawinga, the Current enter the weekend with a full 12-point lead over the rest of the league, as reigning NWSL Shield and Championship winners Orlando push to make a statement.

"We are resilient. That is part of our identity. We never give up and we are always playing to win, and we always believe in ourselves," Pride defender Kylie Nadaner said following last Saturday's 1-1 draw with Racing Louisville.

More than just a clash between the top two teams in the NWSL standings, history shows very little love lost between these perennial heavy-hitters.

Last season, Orlando snapped KC's NWSL-record 17-game unbeaten streak on the Current's home turf, then took Kansas City down again in the pair's 2024 semifinal playoff match.

"We will remember the way they acted after the cameras were off," Current forward Michelle Cooper posted to social media after their July 2024 loss.

Kansas City has already issued some regular-season revenge on their way up the table this year, defeating the Pride 1-0 back in May.

How to watch Kansas City vs. Orlando this NWSL weekend

The No. 1 Current will kick off against the No. 2 Pride at 4 PM ET on Saturday, with live coverage airing on CBS.