US Open 2023: Alcaraz, Sabalenka, and Osaka Face Key Matches
NEW YORK – Carlos Alcaraz walks back into the glare of Arthur Ashe Stadium with a Grand Slam already in his pocket this year and a question hanging over his right wrist.
The defending US Open champion has not played a competitive match in more than four months. On Aug 31 (Sept 1, Singapore time), the 21-year-old starts again against Roman Safiullin, a dangerous opening assignment for a man trying to turn an interrupted season into a bookended masterpiece – Australian Open in January, Flushing Meadows in September.
Alcaraz has spent the summer on the practice courts, not the big stages. The wrist that sidelined him since April has been tested, thrashed, trusted again. He says the heavy sessions have restored his belief and that he is ready to “go 100 percent”. The draw offers no easing-in period to prove it.
Alcaraz vs Safiullin: No Soft Landing
Roman Safiullin is not the sort of opponent you want when you are searching for rhythm.
The 29-year-old Russian hits big, takes the ball early and showed at Wimbledon that he can hang with the elite. He knocked out Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca on his way to the fourth round there, before Novak Djokovic finally shut him down in four sets.
Their rivalry is balanced at 1-1. Safiullin stunned then world No. 2 Alcaraz at the ATP Paris Masters in 2023, bullying him from the baseline and exposing any hesitation. Alcaraz hit back at the Paris Olympics the following year, but that defeat in Bercy still lingers as a reminder: if his timing is off, Safiullin has the weapons to make it hurt.
This is not just about survival in round one. For Alcaraz, it is a statement test. Has the layoff dulled his explosiveness, or sharpened his hunger?
Sabalenka’s Slide Meets a Familiar Foe
On the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka walks into New York with history in reach and her grip on the top ranking under threat.
The two-time defending US Open champion could become only the third woman – after Chris Evert and Serena Williams – to win three straight titles in New York. Yet her season has veered from dominance to doubt since she ripped through the hard-court swing in March, claiming back-to-back WTA trophies at Indian Wells and Miami.
Since then, the results have frayed. A title in Brisbane and a run to the Australian Open final set a brutal standard early in the year, but the middle stretch told a different story: a quarter-final exit at Roland Garros, a fourth-round departure at Wimbledon, and a slide that leaves her No. 1 ranking vulnerable even if she lifts the trophy again in Queens.
She opens against Colombia’s Camila Osorio, ranked 59th and beaten twice already by Sabalenka. Those wins came on very different surfaces – grass at Wimbledon in 2021, clay in Madrid in 2023 – and both followed a familiar pattern: Sabalenka’s weight of shot eventually crushed Osorio’s resistance.
Osorio knows the matchup. So does Sabalenka, who has been clear that the wobble in her season has not dented her core belief. “Throw tough challenges at me, I will come back stronger,” she says. New York will demand proof.
Osaka Returns to Her Element
Naomi Osaka has always felt at home on these courts.
Two of her four Grand Slam titles came at the US Open, in 2018 and 2020. When she walks into Flushing Meadows, she carries not just memories but a track record that still commands respect. “I think I’ve proven myself here, so I can kind of bank on that and use that to have confidence,” she said recently.
The past few years have reshaped her career and her life. Osaka has spoken openly about her mental health struggles and stepped away from the tour to address them. She then took 15 months off to focus on motherhood before returning in 2023, a reset that changed the conversation around her as much as it changed her schedule.
The results are starting to follow the work. She reached the semi-finals in Washington on hard courts, then pushed through to the quarter-finals in Toronto in August, a reminder that her game still bites on this surface. On grass, she produced her best-ever Wimbledon result with a quarter-final run in 2026 that included an upset of Sabalenka – a statement win, even away from her favourite terrain.
Now she opens in New York against Anastasia Zakharova, ranked 101st, in their first career meeting. Osaka will want a clean, fast start, to impose her serve and first-strike aggression before nerves or rust can creep in.
Day 2 in New York offers three very different stories: a prodigy testing a healed wrist, a champion fighting to stop a slide, and a former No. 1 trying to reclaim a stage that once felt like hers alone.
By the end of the night, the answers will start to come.
