The gates swing open on another New York fortnight today, and the 2026 U.S. Open wastes no time getting to the heart of the sport.
By noon on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Jessica Pegula — a finalist here in 2024 — walks into the sunlight to start the singles competition against Elena-Gabriela Ruse. It is a fitting opening act: a home hope, a familiar stage, and the memory of last year’s deep run still hanging in the air.
Later, Daniil Medvedev returns to a court that once made him champion and, more recently, sent him packing far too early. The 2021 U.S. Open winner faces Hugo Gaston with one nagging statistic in his mind: a first-round exit last year that never sat right with him. This is his chance to correct the record.
And then, as the day cools and the stadium lights take over from the August sun, the night belongs to two names that have defined eras. Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams headline the evening session at Flushing Meadows, a pairing that underlines just how wide the age and ambition spectrum runs at this final Grand Slam of 2026.
Venus, Serena and one more New York chapter
The tournament schedule offers something else, something more nostalgic and fragile: a Williams sisters reunion that almost never happened.
Wimbledon never got its Serena-and-Venus doubles encore. Serena withdrew with a knee injury after her first-round singles loss to Australian Maya Joint, and with her went the chance to see the sisters share the grass again. That missed moment gives New York a different weight. This time, their partnership feels less like a sideshow and more like the main event.
Their last Grand Slam doubles appearance together came here in 2022, the year Serena “evolved” away from tennis. The buzz then was all about her singles run, the farewell tour, the nightly circus around her every step. Doubles felt like a bonus, a sentimental extra. They lost in the first round to a Czech team led by a 17-year-old Linda Nosková, and the result hardly mattered in the roar of Serena-mania.
Now the dynamic has flipped. Venus has an anticipated first-round singles meeting with fellow American and former major champion Sofia Kenin, but Serena is free of singles commitments. All of her energy, all of her competitive instinct, funnels into doubles — the very scenario many suspected was behind her return earlier this summer: one more push alongside Venus in New York, perhaps near the closing chapters of her sister’s career.
The early signs have been encouraging. Serena’s mixed doubles run with Carlos Alcaraz lit up the summer, a blend of relaxed, playful tennis and moments of genuinely elite shot-making. In Cincinnati, the Williams sisters pushed singles specialists Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns to a third-set tiebreak, coming just a few points short of a comeback win.
Whatever happens here, the instruction is simple: watch them. Take in every changeover, every shared glance, every big-point return. Because if a match point goes the wrong way, there is no guarantee this story gets another sequel.
A 23-year American wait meets a wounded field
On the men’s side, the draw carries a different kind of tension. Two long-running storylines collide in sharper focus than they have in years.
It has been 23 years since an American man won a Grand Slam title. Andy Roddick’s 2003 U.S. Open triumph now feels like a grainy highlight reel from another era. For the first time in a while, the landscape hints at opportunity.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner is out with a knee injury. Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, has not played in four months and returns from wrist surgery — the kind of injury that can haunt a player’s imagination long after the doctors clear him. Djokovic is 39 and has played only one match since Wimbledon. Top seed Alexander Zverev arrives off an underwhelming set of tuneups.
Against that backdrop, the American contingent looks as ready as it has in years.
- Taylor Fritz won the D.C. Open.
- Ben Shelton took the Canadian Open.
- Frances Tiafoe came within a set of winning the Cincinnati Open.
Yes, Sinner and Alcaraz skipped those events, and Djokovic lost his opening match in Cincinnati, but form is form. These are results that build belief.
Tiafoe, who has carried questions about the American drought for most of his career, brushed off the idea that a weakened field changes the task.
“It’s the same conversation,” he said on Friday. “Still gotta beat seven guys, however way you slice it.”
There is another historical quirk hanging over the fortnight: no man has successfully defended the U.S. Open title since Roger Federer’s fifth straight crown in 2008. A fully fit, fully sharp Alcaraz would have been the clear favorite to break that pattern. Now, even he cannot be sure how his body will respond after missing a third of the season. Then again, so much of his 23-year-old career has been about doing what others call impossible.
Gauff surges, Sabalenka stalks, Pegula plots revenge
Cincinnati usually offers a rough sketch of what might unfold in New York. If that holds, Coco Gauff has every reason to stride into Queens with a swagger.
She dominated the Cincinnati Open and looks poised to surge back into the WTA top three from her current No. 4 ranking. The defending U.S. Open champion has the form, the confidence and the crowd behind her as she chases a second trophy in as many years here.
Yet the favorite’s mantle still sits on Aryna Sabalenka’s shoulders. Her power game, her recent record at majors, her ability to bulldoze through early rounds — all of it makes this, in many eyes, her tournament to lose.
Just behind that duel sits Jessica Pegula, carrying her own quiet edge. She fell to Gauff in Cincinnati and now returns to the scene of last year’s final with a chance to rewrite that script. Mirra Andreeva, already a Roland Garros champion this year, arrives looking to cap a breakout season with a second major. Iga Świątek, chasing a seventh Grand Slam title, has another target in mind: only her second crown on hard courts, to sit alongside her 2022 U.S. Open win.
A duopoly derailed, and a door ajar
Not long ago, it felt as if men’s tennis had settled on its next rivalry. Sinner and Alcaraz traded blows in the biggest arenas — Roland Garros, Wimbledon, the U.S. Open — splitting finals and hinting at a decade of Sunday showdowns.
Then the script tore.
After Alcaraz completed the career Grand Slam with the Australian Open title, his season veered off course. A wrist injury in April led to surgery and a long absence, wiping him out of Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Sinner, seemingly poised to take advantage, crashed out in the second round in Paris, leaving the path open for Zverev’s long-awaited first Grand Slam title. Sinner recovered to win Wimbledon, only to see his own U.S. Open hopes disappear with a knee injury.
So here we are: Sinner sidelined, Alcaraz returning with question marks, and a field sensing opportunity.
Zverev now sits at world No. 2. World No. 6 Flavio Cobolli arrives buoyed by a lively run to the final of the revamped mixed doubles event alongside Belinda Bencic. World No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime, the highest-ranked North American on the ATP Tour, steps into a city that has often lifted Canadian players. Shelton and Fritz lurk at the back end of the top 10, both armed with recent titles and booming games tailored to hard courts.
And somewhere in that mix, still, is Novak Djokovic. Thirty-nine years old, chasing a 25th Grand Slam title that would push his legacy even further into the distance. One match since Wimbledon, yet nobody in the locker room will dare write him off.
Morning calm before the noise
For now, the scene at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is almost serene.
At 9 a.m. ET, before the gates open at 9:30, vendors move quietly through their routines. Staff prepare for the thousands about to flood in. On the outer courts, players search for a last pocket of calm before the city’s noise finds them. Paula Badosa walks past with her coaches, heading to practice under a clear, sharp blue sky.
The numbers on the board say 71.6 F (22 C), climbing toward 82 F (28 C) later in the day. The conditions look close to perfect. Less than 90 minutes to first ball.
The questions — about droughts and dynasties, comebacks and farewells — will start to find answers soon enough.
