U.S. Open 2026 Preview: A Tournament Full of Possibilities

The gates at Flushing Meadows swing open today on a U.S. Open that feels wide, gloriously, unexpectedly open.

By lunchtime, the show courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center will already be humming. Jessica Pegula, the 2024 U.S. Open finalist, steps onto Arthur Ashe Stadium at 12 p.m. ET to face Elena-Gabriela Ruse and set the tone for the fortnight. Daniil Medvedev, champion here in 2021 and a first-round casualty a year ago, goes in search of redemption against Hugo Gaston.

Then the night belongs to two names that have defined eras: Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams. At 39, Djokovic returns having played just one match since Wimbledon, still hunting Grand Slam title No. 25. Venus, still competing under the New York lights that helped make her a global star, headlines a session that leans more on history than on seedings.

The Williams reunion, finally in New York

The tennis world never got its Wimbledon nostalgia act. Serena Williams’ knee injury and first-round singles loss to Australian Maya Joint forced her out of doubles with Venus, shelving what was supposed to be a sentimental run on the grass.

That absence adds an extra charge to their reunion in New York.

The sisters last shared a Grand Slam doubles court here in 2022, the year Serena “evolved” away from tennis. Back then, doubles felt like a bonus track tacked onto Serena’s farewell tour. They lost in the first round to a Czech team featuring a 17-year-old Linda Nosková, while the entire fortnight revolved around Serena’s singles matches and the emotional weight of goodbye.

This time the dynamic flips. Venus still has an eye-catching first-round singles meeting with fellow American and former major champion Sofia Kenin, but Serena is here purely for doubles. No singles distractions. No farewell framing. Just the chance to pour everything into one discipline, which is exactly what many suspected was behind her return to the sport earlier this summer: one more proper doubles run with her sister in New York, potentially near the end of Venus’ career.

The signs have been encouraging. Serena’s mixed doubles pairing with Carlos Alcaraz produced exactly what fans hoped for — a loose, playful vibe wrapped around genuinely sharp tennis. At the Cincinnati Open, Serena and Venus pushed Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns to a third-set tiebreak and came within a handful of points of a comeback win against two dangerous singles players.

Whatever the result here, the equation is simple. When the Williams sisters are on a court in New York, you watch. You soak it in. You don’t assume there will be another chance if a match point goes the wrong way.

A 23-year American wait meets a wounded field

On the men’s side, the tournament opens with a collision of drought and opportunity.

It has been 23 years since an American man won a Grand Slam title. Andy Roddick’s 2003 U.S. Open triumph has aged into a reference point rather than a memory for many of the players chasing him. The path has rarely looked more inviting than it does now.

Jannik Sinner, world No. 1, is out with a knee injury. Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, hasn’t hit a ball in competition for four months while recovering from wrist surgery, a nightmare scenario for any player, let alone one who relies so heavily on explosive racket-head speed. Djokovic is 39 and largely untested since Wimbledon. Alexander Zverev, the top seed, stumbled through the North American hard-court tuneups.

Into that vacuum stride the Americans.

Taylor Fritz arrives with the D.C. Open title. Ben Shelton claimed the Canadian Open. Frances Tiafoe came within a set of winning the Cincinnati Open. The caveat is obvious: Sinner and Alcaraz skipped those events, and Djokovic exited Cincinnati in his opening match. Even so, form is form, and the American contingent has it.

Tiafoe, who has carried questions about the 23-year Grand Slam gap for most of his career, brushed off the idea that this slightly weakened field changes the task. “It’s the same conversation,” he said Friday. “Still gotta beat seven guys, however way you slice it.”

There is another quirk hanging over the draw. No man has defended the U.S. Open since Roger Federer won his fifth straight title in 2008. In a normal year, a fully fit Alcaraz would stride into New York as the overwhelming favorite to snap that pattern. His body, though, has not cooperated. Nobody, including Alcaraz, can say how his wrist will respond to the stress of best-of-five sets after missing a third of the season, yet his career has been built on shredding assumptions and doing the unreasonable.

Women’s draw: Sabalenka’s to lose, but Gauff surges

Cincinnati tends to hint at New York. If that holds, Coco Gauff has timed her surge perfectly.

The 2023 U.S. Open champion dominated in Cincinnati and looks ready to climb back into the top three of the WTA rankings from her current No. 4. The way she handled that field suggests she is in the kind of form that can deliver a second title in Queens.

Standing in the center of the storm, though, is Aryna Sabalenka. The world No. 1 carries the weight of expectation and the kind of power game that can flatten a draw if she finds her range early. This feels like her tournament to control — or to let slip.

Jessica Pegula lurks as a serious threat, eager to avenge her Cincinnati loss to Gauff and to go one step further than her runner-up finish here in 2024. Mirra Andreeva, already a Roland Garros champion this year, arrives with the confidence of a teenager who has proved she belongs at the sport’s sharp end and now hunts a second major title in the same season.

Then there is Iga Świątek. Six Grand Slam trophies already sit on her shelf. A second hard-court major, to go with her 2022 U.S. Open crown, would reinforce the idea that her dominance can stretch beyond clay and into every surface, every season.

A disrupted men’s hierarchy

Not long ago, the script looked settled. Sinner and Alcaraz, fresh from trading blows in the finals of Roland Garros (Alcaraz), Wimbledon (Sinner) and the U.S. Open (Alcaraz), seemed poised to carve up the sport between them, a modern duopoly ready to define the decade.

Then the season buckled.

Alcaraz completed the career Grand Slam with the Australian Open and promptly hit the injury wall in April, his wrist forcing surgery and ruling him out of Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Sinner stumbled early in Paris, losing in the second round and clearing a path for Zverev’s long-awaited first major. Sinner responded by winning Wimbledon, only to be sidelined for New York with a knee problem.

That leaves a draw full of possibilities. Zverev, now world No. 2 thanks to Alcaraz’s absence, carries the aura of a first-time Grand Slam winner and the pressure that comes with it. World No. 6 Flavio Cobolli rides in 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, will hope that a friendly crowd and familiar conditions can finally ignite a deep New York run.

Behind them, Shelton and Fritz lurk inside the top 10, their recent titles and big-match temperaments making them dangerous floaters in a field missing its usual anchors.

And still, Djokovic waits. A 39-year-old with 24 Grand Slam titles and an undimmed appetite for more, he returns to a tournament where he has experienced both coronations and heartbreak, still chasing that 25th major.

Morning calm before the chaos

For now, the noise is only potential.

At 9 a.m. ET, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center sits in a kind of hush. The gates don’t open until 9:30. Vendors set up. Staff move into position. The infrastructure of a Grand Slam wakes up slowly.

On the practice courts, a few players steal quiet time before the crush of spectators. Paula Badosa and her coaches stroll toward a session, cutting through near-empty walkways that will soon be packed.

The weather could hardly be more inviting: bright sun, a clear blue sky, 71.6 F (22 C) in the morning with a forecast high of 82 F (28 C). Less than 90 minutes to first ball.

An American drought on one side, a power struggle on the other, legends sharing the stage with the next wave. The final Grand Slam of 2026 is open for the taking — the only question is who will be brave enough to grab it.