Alcaraz Returns to US Open: A Defending Champion's Challenge

Carlos Alcaraz walks back into the spotlight on Monday at Flushing Meadows with a familiar weight on his shoulders and an unfamiliar question hanging over him: how quickly can a defending champion find his edge after four months on the shelf?

The answer starts against Roman Safiullin, and it could be brutal.

Alcaraz back on the big stage

The last time Alcaraz played an official match was in April, his season stalled by a right wrist injury just as he looked ready to dominate after winning the Australian Open. That title in Melbourne completed his career Grand Slam at a younger age than any man before him. Now he returns to New York trying to slam the door on the season the way he opened it.

The draw has given him no gentle reintroduction.

Safiullin, 29, is not the kind of first-round opponent any top seed wants after a long layoff. The Russian hits heavy, takes the ball early and has already shown he can drag Alcaraz into uncomfortable territory from the baseline. Their head-to-head stands at 1-1: Safiullin stunned then-world number two Alcaraz at the ATP Paris Masters in 2023, only for the Spaniard to strike back at the Paris Olympics the following year.

Safiullin’s run to the Wimbledon fourth round this season underlined the danger. He knocked out Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca before pushing Novak Djokovic to four sets on the grass. That kind of form, paired with Alcaraz’s lack of match rhythm, turns an opening assignment into a genuine test.

Alcaraz has tried to erase the doubts on the practice courts. He has spoken of “demanding” sessions that have rebuilt trust in his wrist and insists he is ready to “go 100 percent”. The question is whether practice intensity can match the shock of a night match at the US Open, with a hungry opponent and a title defense on the line.

Sabalenka’s slide meets a familiar foe

On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka returns to the tournament she has ruled for the past two years with her aura dimmed but her ambitions unchanged.

The world number one has been in free-fall since March, when she stormed through Indian Wells and Miami with back-to-back WTA hard-court titles. Since then, the results have stung: only a quarter-final at Roland Garros, a fourth-round exit at Wimbledon, and a sense that her grip on the top ranking is loosening.

It could slip completely in New York. Sabalenka might lose the number one spot even if she manages to become just the third woman after Chris Evert and Serena Williams to win three straight US Open crowns. That is the razor’s edge she walks into this fortnight.

First up is Camila Osorio, ranked 59 in the world and beaten twice by Sabalenka in their previous meetings. Those wins came on very different surfaces and in very different moments: Wimbledon grass in 2021, Madrid clay in 2023. Both times, Sabalenka’s power and first-strike tennis smothered the Colombian.

The Belarusian opened her year by lifting the title in Brisbane and reaching the Australian Open final, performances that suggested a relentless march through the season. The mid-year wobble has not shaken her public stance. “Throw tough challenges at me, I will come back stronger,” she says, framing the slump as fuel rather than a warning.

Osorio will test that resolve, but the real battle for Sabalenka is with her own standard. The bar she set in New York over the last two years leaves no room for another misstep.

Osaka leans on New York memories

Naomi Osaka knows this court, this city, this feeling. She has lifted the US Open trophy twice, in 2018 and 2020, and those memories matter as she rebuilds a career that has been reshaped by life away from the tour.

“I think I’ve proven myself here, so I can kind of bank on that and use that to have confidence,” she said recently. It is not bravado. It is a reminder, to herself as much as anyone else, that Flushing Meadows has been the stage for some of her most commanding tennis.

Her path back has been anything but straightforward. Osaka has spoken openly about her mental health challenges and stepped away from the sport to address them. She then took 15 months out to focus on motherhood before returning in 2023, a reset that changed both her schedule and her perspective.

The results are starting to follow. This summer she reached the semi-finals in Washington on hard courts, then backed it up with a quarter-final run in Toronto. At Wimbledon, she produced her best performance at the All England Club, reaching the quarter-finals and delivering an upset over Sabalenka that echoed her old giant-killing instincts.

Now comes Anastasia Zakharova, ranked 101, in their first career meeting. On the hard courts of New York, where Osaka’s serve and flat groundstrokes bite hardest, she will look for a fast start and a statement that her Grand Slam ambitions are no longer just about the past.

Alcaraz defending, Sabalenka wobbling, Osaka resurging. Day 2 in New York is less a gentle warm-up and more a stress test for champions. How many of them will still look like themselves by the time the lights go out?