US Open 2026: Dates, Schedule, Players and How to Watch

Aryna Sabalenka against Jessica Pegula in the women's draw, a rematch of the 2024 final in New York. In the men's draw, Frances Tiafoe is through and plays the winner of Carlos Alcaraz against Ben Shelton. The remaining quarter-finals on both sides are played on Wednesday September 9. Sources: CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports.

Tuesday September 8 produced three completed matches and one long night. Frances Tiafoe came back from two sets down to beat Alex Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6), the biggest Grand Slam recovery of his career. Aryna Sabalenka beat Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 7-6 (10-7), and Jessica Pegula beat Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. The Alcaraz against Shelton quarter-final was the Tuesday night session on Arthur Ashe. Sources: CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports.

The women's singles final is Saturday, September 12 and the men's singles final is Sunday, September 13, both on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Each singles champion earns $5.5 million, the largest winner's cheque in tennis history, out of a record $108 million total purse. Sources: USTA.

The singles main draw of the 2026 US Open starts on Sunday, August 30, 2026 and runs 15 days through the men's final on Sunday, September 13. The event actually opens a week earlier: Fan Week begins on Sunday, August 23 with free grounds admission, and the revamped mixed doubles championship is played August 24-26, before the singles begin. In total the USTA is billing 2026 as 22 days of tennis. Source: usopen.org.

The US Open is played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York City. The main show court is Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis stadium in the world with roughly 23,700 seats, followed by Louis Armstrong Stadium and the Grandstand. All courts use an acrylic hard-court surface, played under floodlights deep into the New York night sessions.

Carlos Alcaraz (men) and Aryna Sabalenka (women) are the defending champions, both having won the 2025 edition. Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner in the 2025 final, extending tennis's defining current rivalry, while Sabalenka successfully defended the title she first won in 2024. Both arrive in New York as the players to beat on hard courts.

The headline change came on August 21, when world No. 1 Jannik Sinner withdrew with a right knee injury. Alexander Zverev therefore becomes the No. 1 seed, a first for him at a Grand Slam, and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is seeded No. 2 after confirming his return from a four-month wrist injury. Novak Djokovic and home favourite Taylor Fritz move up the seedings. On the women's side, Aryna Sabalenka leads the field, with four other former US Open champions entered: Coco Gauff (2024), Iga Swiatek (2022), Naomi Osaka (2018, 2020) and Emma Raducanu (2021). Each singles main draw has 128 players, including 8 wild cards and 16 qualifiers. Sources: usopen.org, ATP Tour, CBS Sports.

Confirmed at a record $108 million, up about 20 percent on 2025 and the largest purse in tennis history. Each singles champion earns $5.5 million, the biggest winner's cheque ever paid at a tennis tournament, with $2.8 million for the runners-up, $1.45 million for semi-finalists and $780,000 for quarter-finalists. The separate mixed doubles championship pays $1 million to the winning pair. Sources: ATP Tour, Sportico, Bleacher Report.

Yes. During Fan Week, Sunday August 23 to Saturday August 29, grounds admission is free: you can watch qualifying matches, practice sessions with the stars, and Arthur Ashe Kids' Day, which kicks off Fan Week on August 23. Some marquee Fan Week sessions in the big stadiums, like the mixed doubles semifinals and final, are ticketed separately, with tickets starting around $45. Source: usopen.org.

Since 2025 the US Open has staged its mixed doubles as a star-driven event during Fan Week, before the singles start. In 2026 it runs August 24-26: an eight-team qualifying competition feeds two spots into a 16-team main draw, with early rounds using short sets to four games and no-ad scoring, and the final played as best of three tiebreak sets on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday evening, August 26. Big singles names enter as teams, headlined in 2026 by Aryna Sabalenka partnering Novak Djokovic. Sources: usopen.org, olympics.com.

Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik. The Czech pair beat Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 1-6, [10-6] in the final on Arthur Ashe Stadium on August 26, taking the 1 million dollar first prize after saving two match points in the semi-final against Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev. Sources: usopen.org, WTA, ATP Tour.

They lost in the quarter-finals. The wild card pairing, announced on August 21, was the most watched entry of the week: Serena Williams, 44, returned to competition in June 2026 after nearly four years away and was not in the singles draw, so this was her only appearance in New York. The other headline pair, top seeds Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, went out in the first round. Sources: usopen.org, ATP Tour, ESPN.

Singles begins on Sunday, August 30, with the draw made on August 27. Alexander Zverev opens against Lorenzo Sonego, Carlos Alcaraz against Roman Safiullin, Novak Djokovic against Mariano Navone and Taylor Fritz against 18-year-old American Darwin Blanch. On the women's side Aryna Sabalenka plays Camila Osorio. Alcaraz and Djokovic came out in the same half, so they can meet no later than the semi-finals. Sources: ATP Tour, Bleacher Report, Tennis365.

Alexander Zverev, after Jannik Sinner's withdrawal on August 21 moved every seed up a place. It is the first time the German is top seed at a Grand Slam, in the year he won his maiden major at Roland-Garros. Carlos Alcaraz is the No. 2 seed and sits in the opposite half of the draw. The seedings were locked in at the draw ceremony on August 27, after 17 withdrawals across both draws. Sources: Tennis365, Yahoo Sports.

In the United States, ESPN platforms carry the US Open. In the UK, coverage sits with Sky Sports; in much of Europe, Eurosport has traditionally held rights; check your local listings as the tournament approaches. Streaming options mirror the TV rights holders in each market, and highlights are posted on the official US Open channels.

Tickets are sold through the official US Open site and Ticketmaster, with individual session tickets, multi-session plans and grounds passes. Grounds passes are the budget play: they cover all outer courts plus Grandstand and, on many days, unreserved seating in Louis Armstrong Stadium. Arthur Ashe night sessions in the second week are the priciest sessions. Fan Week (August 23-29) offers free grounds admission before the main draw.

Since 2025, the US Open has started its main draw on a Sunday, stretching the singles to 15 days instead of the traditional 14. The change adds a full extra day of sessions (and revenue), mirrors what Roland-Garros did in 2006 with its Sunday start, and gives the first round three days instead of two. The 2026 edition follows the same pattern: main draw from Sunday, August 30 to Sunday, September 13.