2026 U.S. Open: New York Awaits the Showdown

The tournament is played on hard courts—specifically, the fastest of the four Grand Slams. Players who look to take the initiative immediately after the serve and return will find the best conditions of the year here. At the heart of the complex is Arthur Ashe Stadium, with just under 24,000 seats—the largest tennis stadium in the world. The action starts even earlier: Fan Week begins on August 23, and qualifying takes place from August 24 to 27.

In the singles competition, 128 players each in the women’s and men’s draws will compete, 32 of whom are seeded. To win the title, players must win seven matches over two weeks, with temperatures regularly climbing above 30 degrees during the first week.

An overview of the most important rules:

• Set format: Men play best-of-five sets; women play best-of-three sets.
• Deciding set: If the score is 6–6, a match tiebreak to 10 points decides the set. This rule has been uniformly applied at all four Grand Slams since 2022—prior to that, each tournament had its own system.
• Technology: There haven’t been line judges in New York for quite some time; all calls are made by the electronic line-calling system.
• Surface: Hard court—specifically, the fastest on the Grand Slam calendar. The ball bounces flat and fast, and long baseline rallies are less common than at the French Open.

In addition to the singles competitions, doubles, mixed doubles, and junior and wheelchair competitions will also be held. Qualifying for the main singles draw takes place the week before the tournament begins, with 16 spots available in each category.

At the top of the seedings are three Grand Slam champions with very different levels of form and circumstances.

• Carlos Alcaraz: The defending champion won the 2025 final against Jannik Sinner and claimed his first major title at Flushing Meadows back in 2022. At the start of the year, he completed his career Grand Slam with a victory at the Australian Open. However, he has been sidelined by injury since April. A wrist injury forced him to withdraw from Montreal and Cincinnati. The key question: How much will it cost after four months without a match?
• Jannik Sinner: The world No. 1 won his fifth Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in July and knows his way around New York, having claimed victory there in 2024. He, too, is coming into the tournament without any competitive action: knee problems forced him to withdraw from Montreal and Cincinnati.
• Alexander Zverev: The world No. 2 is the only one of the three who is in rhythm. In Cincinnati, he topped the seedings after both of his rivals withdrew.

Behind them, a large group of contenders is pushing forward. Ben Shelton won the Masters in Montreal, and his serve is perfectly suited to the conditions in New York. As the local favorite, Taylor Fritz has the crowd behind him, and he’s joined by Novak Djokovic, Félix Auger-Aliassime, Alex de Minaur, and French Open finalist Flavio Cobolli.

For Alexander Zverev, New York is where it all began—and where he has yet to achieve that decisive victory. In 2020, he reached the final, led Dominic Thiem by two sets, but ended up losing. A year later, his run ended in the semifinals. Winning the U.S. Open title is one of the last major gaps in his resume.

The key change has come this season. After losing three Grand Slam finals, Zverev won his first major title at Roland Garros and reached the final at Wimbledon just a few weeks later. The pressure that had weighed on him for years during each of his Slam appearances is now gone.

What speaks in his favor: He is the only one of the top three seeds with match experience on American hard courts. While Sinner and Alcaraz skipped the entire summer tour, Zverev played in Montreal and Cincinnati.

What speaks against him: He was eliminated in the first round in Montreal. And the fast surface in New York doesn't reward the backhand—which he relies on—as much as slower courts do.

In addition to Zverev, there are three other Germans in the main draw: Jan-Lennard Struff, Yannick Hanfmann, and Daniel Altmaier.

Aryna Sabalenka arrives in New York as the defending champion and world No. 1. In 2025, she won the final against Amanda Anisimova, claiming her second consecutive U.S. Open title. A third title in a row would be a feat last achieved more than ten years ago. Her aggressive style of play from the very first rally suits the fast courts here better than at almost any other tournament.

Things get more interesting beyond that, as the 2026 season produced three different Grand Slam champions:

• Linda Nosková won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon and is arriving at the tournament with that confidence.
• Mirra Andreeva triumphed at the French Open and, despite her young age, is already among the world’s elite.
• As the Australian Open champion, Elena Rybakina will also have a say in who takes home the title.

Then there are Iga Świątek, Coco Gauff, and Naomi Osaka, who, as a two-time U.S. Open champion, knows how to win in New York.

Bottom line: Unlike in the men's competition, where three names clearly dominate the field, in the women's competition, six to eight players are realistically in contention for the title.

• The tournament has been held 145 times. This makes it the most frequently held of the four Grand Slams.
• In 2025, the USTA awarded approximately 90 million U.S. dollars in prize money—more than any other tennis tournament in the world. To put that in perspective: Just reaching the first round of the main draw earned players about $110,000, the round of 16 about $400,000, and the semifinals about $1.26 million.
• Since 1973, the U.S. Open has paid women and men the same prize money. It was thus the first Grand Slam tournament to introduce equal pay. The other three followed suit only decades later.
• Arthur Ashe Stadium, the world’s largest tennis stadium, holds just under 24,000 spectators. By comparison, Wimbledon’s Center Court seats around 15,000 people.
• Aryna Sabalenka has won two consecutive titles in the women’s draw, while Carlos Alcaraz won the men’s title in 2022 and 2025.

The U.S. Open isn't broadcast on free-to-air TV in Germany. There are two ways to watch it live: Sky Sport shows the top matches, all matches featuring German players, and both finals. With a Sky subscription, you can also stream the matches via Sky Go; without a subscription, you can watch them via WOW. Another option is Sporteurope.TV, formerly known as Sportdeutschland.TV. There, you can watch the matches live or on demand; payment is made via a tournament pass rather than a recurring subscription.

Plan for the time difference: New York is six hours behind us. The afternoon matches start here in the early evening, while the evening sessions don’t begin until around 1:00 a.m. As a result, the big matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium often don’t end until dawn. The schedule—which matches are played when—is always finalized the night before. During the tournament, you can find the U.S. Open tennis results on the official tournament website and in the app, as well as on all major live score services.