2026 U.S. Open: Key Matches and Players to Watch

The gates slide open on another New York fortnight, and the 2026 U.S. Open walks into the light.

By noon on Arthur Ashe Stadium, the final Grand Slam of the year will already have a familiar American face at center stage. Jessica Pegula, a U.S. Open finalist in 2024 and now a permanent fixture near the top of the women’s game, opens the main show at 12 p.m. ET against Elena-Gabriela Ruse. It’s a serious assignment dressed up as an early-afternoon starter: a home hope, a big court, and the expectation that this is just the first step of a deep run.

Not long after, Daniil Medvedev will try to correct a wrong that has bothered him for 12 months. The 2021 champion, a man who once made this court feel like his living room, crashed out in the first round last year. Hugo Gaston stands in his way now, and Medvedev knows exactly what that looks like on a back page if he misfires again.

The night, though, belongs to two names that have defined eras. Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams headline the evening session, an echo of tennis past still very much alive in tennis present.

A New York reunion that almost never was

Venus Williams walks back into the U.S. Open with her sister by her side, and that alone changes the temperature of the place.

The tennis world never got the Wimbledon doubles swan song it wanted. Serena Williams pulled out of the event with a knee injury after her first-round singles loss to Australian Maya Joint, and the old magic on the grass never materialized.

So New York gets the reunion instead. It feels fitting.

The sisters last played doubles together at a Grand Slam here in 2022, the year Serena “evolved” away from tennis. That match, a first-round loss to a Czech pair featuring a 17-year-old Linda Nosková, felt like a sideshow. Doubles was a bonus act tacked onto the main event of Serena’s farewell singles run, swallowed whole by the mania around every step she took.

This time, doubles sits closer to the center of the story.

Venus still has a marquee first-round singles clash lined up against fellow American and former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin. But Serena is not juggling a singles campaign now. Her entire focus can pour into the shared court, the shared cause, the shared last chapters.

The signs have been promising. Serena’s mixed doubles partnership with Carlos Alcaraz earlier this summer offered a perfect blend of looseness and sharp edge: crowd-pleasing exchanges, but real, high-level tennis underneath the smiles. In Cincinnati, the Williams sisters pushed singles specialists Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns to a third-set tiebreak, clawing back to within a few points of a comeback win.

Whatever happens in New York, the message is simple: watch them while you still can. Soak up every changeover, every stare, every shared smile or glare at a missed chance. If a match point goes against them, there is no guarantee the opportunity will ever come back.

A 23-year American wait meets a wounded field

On the men’s side, the draw carries a sense of opportunity that American tennis has not felt in a generation.

It has been 23 years since an American man lifted a Grand Slam trophy. Andy Roddick did it here in 2003. Since then, New York has watched others celebrate on its biggest stage while the home hopes talked about “next year.”

This year feels different. On paper, at least.

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is out with a knee injury. Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion and the sport’s brightest young star, has not played in four months as he recovers from wrist surgery. That kind of layoff terrifies any player, no matter how fearless they look on court.

Novak Djokovic is 39 and has played only one match since Wimbledon. Alexander Zverev, the top seed in this draw, stumbled through his tuneup events.

The door is not wide open. But it is not slammed shut either.

Taylor Fritz arrives as the D.C. Open champion. Ben Shelton just took the Canadian Open. Frances Tiafoe came within a set of the Cincinnati Open title. Those trophies do not guarantee anything in New York, and it matters that Sinner and Alcaraz skipped those events while Djokovic lost early in Cincinnati. Still, form is form, and the Americans have it.

Tiafoe, who has heard about the 23-year drought for as long as he has been relevant, brushed off the idea that this is somehow a softer path.

“It’s the same conversation,” he said on Friday. “Still gotta beat seven guys, however way you slice it.”

There’s another layer. No man has defended the U.S. Open title since Roger Federer completed his five-in-a-row run in 2008. A fully fit, fully match-tough Alcaraz would have walked into this tournament as the clear favorite to end that stat. Instead, nobody knows what his body, or his timing, will look like after missing a third of the season.

Then again, so much of Alcaraz’s brief, brilliant career has involved doing things that were supposed to be impossible.

Gauff’s surge, Sabalenka’s standard, and a crowded women’s field

If Cincinnati really is the dress rehearsal for New York, Coco Gauff has every reason to feel at home when she walks into Ashe.

She dominated the Cincinnati Open, a statement run that suggested she is ready to climb back into the top three of the WTA rankings — she sits at No. 4 now — and perhaps add a second U.S. Open trophy to her resume.

But the target remains on Aryna Sabalenka’s back. This is her tournament to lose, the standard everyone else is chasing.

Jessica Pegula lurks nearby, fueled by a recent loss to Gauff in Cincinnati and the memory of coming within touching distance of the title here in 2024. Mirra Andreeva, already a Roland Garros champion this season, arrives looking to crown her breakout year with a second major at just 17.

Then there is Iga Świątek. Six Grand Slam titles already, but only one on a hard court — the 2022 U.S. Open. She knows exactly what a second New York crown would mean for the narrative around her dominance.

A duopoly disrupted

At the end of last season, men’s tennis looked set for a new order built around two names. Sinner and Alcaraz split the sport’s biggest stages: Alcaraz edging him in an instant-classic Roland Garros final, Sinner striking back at Wimbledon, Alcaraz reclaiming New York.

After Alcaraz completed the career Grand Slam at the Australian Open, the script seemed written. The rest of the field would fight for scraps while the two young stars traded blows on Sundays.

Then the script burned.

Alcaraz injured his wrist in April, had surgery, and disappeared from Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Sinner, without his main rival in Paris, stumbled in the second round. The opening allowed Zverev to finally claim a first Grand Slam title. Sinner responded by winning Wimbledon, but now he is sidelined with that knee issue. Alcaraz returns here as a question mark rather than a certainty.

So the stage is set for a different kind of breakthrough.

Zverev arrives as world No. 2, his ranking boosted by Alcaraz’s absence. World No. 6 Flavio Cobolli has ridden a wave of confidence, including a joyful run to the final of the new-look mixed doubles event alongside Belinda Bencic. World No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime stands as the highest-ranked North American on the ATP Tour; a Canadian tilt at a New York title would not feel entirely out of place.

Behind them, Shelton and Fritz sit just outside the very top tier, dangerous floaters in any section of the draw.

And always, in the background, there is Djokovic. Thirty-nine years old, still chasing Grand Slam title No. 25, still capable of turning a tournament upside down with one good week.

Morning calm before the New York storm

For now, the chaos is only potential.

At 9 a.m. ET, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is almost quiet. The gates stay closed until 9:30. Vendors and staff move with the easy rhythm of people who know they will be sprinting soon.

Players slip onto the practice courts to steal a little peace before the crowds arrive. Paula Badosa walks by with her coaches, racket bags over shoulders, another player trying to feel the ball in the cool of the morning.

The sky is clear, the sun sharp but not yet oppressive. It’s 71.6 F (22 C), heading toward a high of 82 F (28 C). Perfect tennis weather. Less than 90 minutes to first ball.

By tonight, the calm will be gone. Pegula’s campaign will have started, Medvedev’s redemption bid will be under way, Djokovic and Venus will step under the Ashe lights, and the Williams sisters will be one match closer to whatever ending New York has in store for them.

A 23-year wait, a wounded field, a cluster of hungry contenders. The last Grand Slam of 2026 is open for a statement.

Who is ready to make it?