Alcaraz's Comeback at US Open: Challenging Matches Await
NEW YORK – Carlos Alcaraz walks back into the noise of Flushing Meadows on Saturday night with more questions than answers and exactly the kind of stage he seems to crave.
The defending US Open champion has not struck a ball in anger since April, when a right wrist injury shut down his season just as it was gathering speed. Now he returns trying to complete a rare kind of symmetry: Australian Open champion in January, US Open champion in September, and the youngest man ever to have already completed the career Grand Slam.
Across the net in his first match in more than four months: Roman Safiullin. No easing in. No gentle reintroduction. A hitter who can hurt him.
Alcaraz back under the lights
Their head-to-head is locked at 1-1, and the Russian has already shown he can make Alcaraz deeply uncomfortable. Safiullin stunned him at the ATP Paris Masters in 2023, bullying him from the baseline and exposing the occasional rashness in the Spaniard’s shot selection. Alcaraz hit back at the Paris Olympics the following year, but that defeat still lingers as a warning.
Safiullin, 29, arrives with proper grass-court credentials from this season: wins over Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca en route to the Wimbledon fourth round, where he finally bowed out to Novak Djokovic in four sets. He hits flat, takes the ball early, and loves to pin opponents behind the baseline.
That is precisely the sort of test Alcaraz must pass to trust his body again.
The Spaniard has spoken of “demanding” practice blocks and a wrist that now lets him “go 100 percent”. Training courts are one thing. A night session in New York, with a dangerous opponent and a title to defend, is another entirely.
Sabalenka’s slide meets a familiar foe
On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka returns to a tournament she has made her own – and to a ranking battle she did not expect to be fighting.
The two-time defending US Open champion opens against Colombia’s Camila Osorio, a player she has beaten twice, but never on hard courts. Their previous meetings came on the grass of Wimbledon in 2021 and the clay of Madrid in 2023, surfaces that asked different questions of both women.
This time, the questions are about Sabalenka herself.
Since ripping through the hard-court swing in March with back-to-back WTA titles at Indian Wells and Miami, the Belarusian’s season has dipped sharply. She lifted the trophy in Brisbane and reached the Australian Open final in January, but the rhythm deserted her as the year wore on: a quarter-final exit at Roland Garros, a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon, and a run of results that suddenly make her world No. 1 status look fragile.
The scenario is stark. Even if she becomes only the third woman after Chris Evert and Serena Williams to win three straight US Open crowns, she could still see her grip on top spot slip away.
Sabalenka insists the wobble has not shaken her belief. “Throw tough challenges at me, I will come back stronger,” she says. The first of those challenges is Osorio, ranked 59 in the world, a tireless counter-puncher who will make her hit one more ball, then another, then another still.
If Sabalenka’s power is on, this can be quick. If the doubts creep in, the night could stretch.
Osaka returns to her favourite ground
Naomi Osaka knows exactly what this place can do for her.
The Japanese star owns two US Open titles, in 2018 and 2020, part of a four-major haul that once made her the face of the sport’s future. “I think I’ve proven myself here, so I can kind of bank on that and use that to have confidence,” she said recently.
She needs every ounce of that stored belief now.
It has been five years since her last Grand Slam triumph, at the 2021 Australian Open. The intervening period has been defined as much by her honesty as her tennis: candid discussions about mental health, time away from the game to reset, and a 15‑month break to embrace motherhood before her return in 2023.
The results are starting to follow the intent. Osaka reached the semi-finals in Washington on hard courts, then backed that up with a quarter-final run in Toronto in August. On grass, she put together her best Wimbledon campaign, reaching the last eight in 2026 and toppling Sabalenka along the way.
Now she is back on the surface that suits her best, in a city where her game and personality once crackled at their brightest.
Across the net stands Anastasia Zakharova, ranked 101 in the world and facing Osaka for the first time. The Russian will try to drag the match into long exchanges, to test Osaka’s movement and patience after so many stop-start seasons.
Osaka, though, will want a statement. Quick first strikes, heavy serving, and an early reminder that on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows, she remains a threat to anyone.
Day 2 is stacked: Alcaraz’s comeback, Sabalenka’s response to a season sliding off course, Osaka’s latest chapter. Three stories, all starting from the same place.
Only one question hangs over them: who walks out of New York with their narrative rewritten?
