Carlos Alcaraz walks back into Arthur Ashe Stadium this year with a title to defend and a body still under scrutiny. The US Open champion has not struck a ball in a competitive singles match for more than four months. Now, Roman Safiullin stands in the way of his first real test.
The right wrist that carried him to the trophy in New York last year has kept him away ever since. Inflammation, not surgery, sidelined the 23-year-old and ripped the heart out of his season. No French Open. No Wimbledon. Just rehab, patience and questions.
He has dipped a toe back into the glare this week in mixed doubles alongside Serena Williams, a gentle reintroduction rather than a full return to the furnace. Singles at Flushing Meadows is something else entirely. Seeded second despite the lay-off, Alcaraz steps straight into the sharp end of a Grand Slam draw with little margin for rust.
Alexander Zverev sits above him as top seed, a reminder of how quickly the men’s landscape has shifted. The German, now a Grand Slam champion after finally lifting the trophy at Roland Garros in June, opens against Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego and carries the pressure of expectation rather than the label of nearly man. Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal with a knee injury pushed Zverev to the summit of the seedings; what he does with that status is now the central question of his fortnight.
Djokovic’s final climb?
On the other side of the draw, Novak Djokovic begins yet another assault on history. The 39-year-old Serb launches his bid for a record 25th Grand Slam singles title against Argentina’s Mariano Navone, a match he will be heavily favoured to control.
But the danger looms immediately behind. If Djokovic advances, he runs into either Matteo Berrettini or Stan Wawrinka in round two. Berrettini knows what it is to push Djokovic on a big stage, having fallen to him in the 2021 Wimbledon final. Wawrinka, a three-time major champion, has beaten Djokovic on the biggest courts before and arrives in New York with the knowledge that this is his last dance at a Slam after receiving a late wildcard.
It is a brutal early crossroads: a dominant champion chasing history against opponents who have already shaped it.
British hopes and hard realities
Arthur Fery returns to Grand Slam life with a very different weight on his shoulders. A surprise semi-finalist at Wimbledon, the 24-year-old rode that run into the world’s top 40 and into the US Open main draw for the first time. The reward? A first-round meeting with 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti, a 2025 quarter-finalist here and a man with his own ambitions of a deep run.
Fery came close to a seeding and missed it. The draw punished him. That is the reality at this level.
He arrives as the leading figure in a thin British contingent. World number 37, a new name to many American fans, but the one carrying most of the British spotlight in New York with Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu both absent.
Draper, a semi-finalist here in 2024, withdrew last week because of a long-term arm injury, a blow to a player who seemed ready to entrench himself at the top of the game. Raducanu, the 2021 champion whose New York breakthrough still feels fresh, remains out with a shin fracture that already cost her Wimbledon.
Cameron Norrie, just clinging to the seedings as number 29, opens against France’s Luca van Assche and will try to grind his way into the second week. Jan Choinski, who cracked the world’s top 100 for the first time in June at the age of 30, is the only other British man in the draw. It is a modest group by recent standards, and the margins for all of them are tight.
Sabalenka under pressure at the top
The women’s event starts with a similar sense of challenge for the defending champion. Aryna Sabalenka, who has sat at the top of the WTA rankings for 97 weeks, begins against Colombia’s Camila Osorio. On paper, it is a manageable opener. In reality, Sabalenka knows the ground beneath her is shifting.
Elena Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion, lurks as the main threat to Sabalenka’s status. Drawn against American teenage wildcard Thea Frodin in the first round, Rybakina has the kind of power and composure that can turn a draw upside down in a handful of games. One bad night from Sabalenka, one big surge from Rybakina, and the top of the rankings could change hands.
Then there is Venus Williams. Two-time US Open champion. Forty-six years old. Winless in 10 matches this season. And still, a wildcard arrives for her to walk through the gates of Flushing Meadows once more.
Her first-round opponent is Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, a player who knows the nerves of the big stage and the grind of clawing back form. For Venus, this is not about numbers or ranking points. It is about pride, memory and the stubborn refusal to leave quietly.
Questions everywhere
Across the draw, the stories are loaded with uncertainty. Can Alcaraz’s wrist withstand the violence of best-of-five tennis after months of caution? Does Zverev carry himself like a multiple Slam winner or like a man still adjusting to the new expectations? How long can Djokovic keep turning up at majors as the man everyone must beat?
And from a British perspective, is Fery’s Wimbledon breakthrough the start of something lasting, or just a thrilling summer spike?
The answers will not come gently. They rarely do in New York.
