US Open Tennis 2026
SEMI-FINALS TAKING SHAPE (Sep 9): Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula are through to the women's semi-finals, Sabalenka past Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 and Pegula past Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Frances Tiafoe pulled off the biggest Grand Slam comeback of his career, two sets down to Alex Michelsen, to reach the men's semi-finals, where he meets the winner of Carlos Alcaraz against Ben Shelton. Wednesday's remaining quarter-finals: Rybakina v Zheng, Gauff v Andreeva, Blockx v Khachanov, Zverev v van de Zandschulp. World No. 1 Jannik Sinner withdrew before the tournament with a knee injury. The women's final is Saturday September 12, the men's Sunday September 13. Prize money is a record 108 million dollars. Sources: CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, USTA.
The context
Tuesday September 8 settled half of both semi-final draws, and it did it the hard way. Frances Tiafoe was two sets and a break down to Alex Michelsen, an unseeded compatriot who had reached the quarter-finals without losing a set, and came back to win 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6) in a final-set tie-break, the largest deficit he has ever recovered at a major. In the women’s quarter-finals, Aryna Sabalenka needed two tie-breaks to get past Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 7-6 (10-7), and Jessica Pegula dropped the first set to Emma Navarro before winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. That sets a women’s semi-final of Sabalenka against Pegula, a rematch of the 2024 final in New York. Tiafoe waits on the winner of Carlos Alcaraz against Ben Shelton. Sources: CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports.
Quarter-final day (September 8, 2026). The last eight is set at Flushing Meadows. In the men’s draw, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz meets Ben Shelton after beating Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, and Frances Tiafoe faces Alex Michelsen in an all-American quarter-final, Tiafoe having knocked out Daniil Medvedev 7-6(1), 6-4, 7-6. In the women’s draw, top seed Aryna Sabalenka plays Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova after seeing off Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-3, while Jessica Pegula meets Emma Navarro. Coco Gauff is through; Naomi Osaka is out, beaten by second seed Elena Rybakina. The women’s final is Saturday September 12, the men’s Sunday September 13. Sources: Sky Sports, CBS Sports, Olympics.com, Washington Post.
Day 2, August 31. Both defending champions open on Monday: Aryna Sabalenka against Camila Osorio in the Arthur Ashe day session, chasing a third consecutive title, and Carlos Alcaraz against Roman Safiullin at night, his first competitive singles match since a wrist injury in April. Naomi Osaka plays Anastasia Zakharova and Coco Gauff plays Zeynep Sonmez. Sunday’s opening day belonged to the returns: Venus Williams, 46 and on a wild card, played Sofia Kenin in the night session on Ashe, the oldest woman in a US Open singles main draw since Renee Richards in 1981. The US Open 2026 is the last Grand Slam of the tennis season and, for once, its story was written before a ball was struck in the main draw. On Friday, August 21, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner withdrew with a right knee injury. He had not competed since winning Wimbledon in July, had already skipped Toronto and Cincinnati, and after testing the knee in Monte Carlo he concluded that New York was too soon. His team is targeting the Asian swing in Beijing and Shanghai instead.
That single announcement reshaped the men’s draw. Alexander Zverev becomes the No. 1 seed at a Grand Slam for the first time, a status that arrives in the same year he finally broke through, winning Roland-Garros in June against Flavio Cobolli after three losing major finals. Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, is seeded second and lands in the opposite half. His own comeback is the other headline: a right wrist injury picked up in April kept him out of the French Open and Wimbledon, and he confirmed his return only on August 20. He has not played a competitive singles match in four months.
The upshot is a men’s event with no obvious favourite. Zverev has the seeding, Alcaraz has the title and the talent but no match rhythm, and Novak Djokovic moves up the pecking order with the deepest hard-court record of anyone in the field. Add Taylor Fritz in front of a home crowd, and a final without either of the two players who have monopolised the majors for three years is no longer a wild scenario. Sinner’s absence also guarantees a full calendar year without a Sinner versus Alcaraz Grand Slam meeting.
The women’s draw is the more settled of the two, and the more historic. Aryna Sabalenka is world No. 1, top seed and two-time defending champion, chasing a third consecutive US Open title, something no woman has managed since Serena Williams between 2012 and 2014. Behind her, Elena Rybakina can leave New York as world No. 1 if results fall her way, and every other 2026 major champion is entered: Rybakina took the Australian Open, Mirra Andreeva won Roland-Garros, and Linda Noskova won Wimbledon at 21, the youngest champion there since Petra Kvitova in 2011.
The draw, made on August 27, did the men’s field no favours. Alcaraz and Djokovic came out in the same half, which means the two most decorated players still standing can meet no later than the semi-finals, and only one of them can reach the final. Alcaraz opens against Roman Safiullin, who beat him on a hard court in Paris in 2023, an awkward first assignment for someone who has not played a competitive singles match since April. Djokovic starts against Mariano Navone with Daniil Medvedev projected in his quarter. Zverev has the other half largely to himself: Lorenzo Sonego first, Alex de Minaur seeded to arrive in the quarter-finals.
The women’s draw split the same way. Sabalenka drew Camila Osorio and sits in the lighter half, while both former champions in the field, Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek, landed at the bottom alongside Elena Rybakina and Mirra Andreeva. On seedings that produces a Gauff versus Andreeva quarter-final and a Rybakina versus Swiatek quarter-final, the latter a rerun of a Cincinnati meeting neither player has stopped talking about. Alex Eala is seeded 17th, her first seeding at a Grand Slam.
Two other things make this edition stand out. The purse is a record $108 million, roughly 20 percent up on last year, with $5.5 million to each singles champion, the largest winner’s cheque in the history of the sport. And the revamped mixed doubles championship, played on August 25 and 26 before the singles started, was won by Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, who beat Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli in the final. The wild-card pairing of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz went out in the quarter-finals; top seeds Sabalenka and Djokovic lost in the first round. The singles main draw opens on Sunday, August 30, with the Arthur Ashe day session from 12 p.m. New York time. Djokovic against Mariano Navone and Medvedev against Hugo Gaston headline day one. Sources: USTA, ATP Tour, ESPN, CBS Sports, Tennis365, Sportico.