U.S. Open 2026: Anticipation Builds for American Tennis Stars

The gates open on a familiar promise in Queens today. The 2026 U.S. Open is back, the last Grand Slam of the year, and the stakes feel heavier than they have in a long time.

By noon on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Jessica Pegula will walk into a court that changed her career two years ago. The 2024 finalist opens the tournament at 12 p.m. ET against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, a tricky first assignment for a player who now carries the burden of expectation, not just hope. Pegula is no longer the quiet overachiever; she’s one of the faces of American tennis, starting the fortnight on the sport’s biggest regular stage.

Daniil Medvedev follows with his own ghosts to confront. The 2021 champion, a man who once broke Novak Djokovic’s calendar Slam dream on this court, is trying to erase the memory of a first-round exit here last year. Hugo Gaston stands across from him, but Medvedev’s real opponent early on is doubt. Champions are judged on how they respond to failure. This draw gives him a chance to answer quickly.

When the sun drops, the night session belongs to two names that defined eras: Novak Djokovic and Venus Williams. Djokovic, 39 years old and still chasing an unprecedented 25th Grand Slam title, has played only one match since Wimbledon. That’s a concern for rhythm, not for aura. New York knows him too well for that. Every time he walks onto Ashe, the question lingers: is this the last time he’ll be a true contender here, or just another chapter in a career that keeps rewriting the limits?

Venus, meanwhile, offers something different — nostalgia mixed with defiance. She’s drawn fellow American and former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin in the first round, a matchup that would have been unimaginable a decade ago for what it says about time. Venus is still here. Still swinging. Still relevant enough that her presence tilts the night session into an event.

The Williams reunion, at last

The tournament’s emotional center, though, sits in the doubles draw.

Wimbledon promised a Serena and Venus Williams reunion, then snatched it away when Serena withdrew after a knee injury in her first-round singles loss to Australian Maya Joint. That absence only sharpens what New York is about to get. Their reunion at the U.S. Open feels like a gift the sport almost lost.

The last time the sisters played doubles together at a Grand Slam was here in 2022. That fortnight was Serena’s farewell — or, as she put it, her “evolution” away from tennis. Doubles then felt like a bonus track tacked onto the Serena-mania of her singles run. They lost in the first round to a Czech pair featuring a 17-year-old Linda Nosková, a reminder that the sport never stops producing the next wave, even when legends are still on court.

This time, doubles sits closer to the center of the story. Serena is not juggling singles; she can pour everything into this partnership. She’s looked sharp in her recent doubles outings, and a popular theory all summer has been that her return was built around one thing: one more U.S. Open doubles run with Venus, perhaps near the end of her sister’s career.

The evidence has been encouraging. Her mixed doubles pairing with Carlos Alcaraz turned into one of the most entertaining spectacles of the season — light-hearted on the surface, serious in the quality of tennis underneath. At the Cincinnati Open, Serena and Venus pushed Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns to a third-set tiebreak, coming within a few points of a comeback win. No title, no trophy. But enough to show that their instincts and competitive fire haven’t dimmed.

However far they go here, the message is simple: watch them while you still can. In New York, with the Ashe lights and the late-night hum, there may never be another stage so perfectly built for the Williams sisters’ final acts.

A 23-year American wait meets a wounded field

Away from the nostalgia, the men’s draw carries a very different kind of tension.

It has been 23 years since an American man won a Grand Slam singles title. Andy Roddick’s 2003 U.S. Open triumph sits alone, a relic from another era. This year, the numbers and the narrative finally seem to line up.

Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, is out with a knee injury. Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion and the man who has already completed the career Grand Slam at just 23, hasn’t played in four months following wrist surgery. A healthy, in-form Alcaraz would have been the runaway favorite here. Instead, he walks into Flushing Meadows as a question mark — dangerous, but untested after missing a third of the season.

Djokovic has barely played since Wimbledon. Alexander Zverev, the No. 1 seed, stumbled through the North American tuneups. The field looks open in a way it rarely does.

Now look at the Americans.

Taylor Fritz won the D.C. Open. Ben Shelton took the Canadian Open. Frances Tiafoe came within a set of winning the Cincinnati Open. Yes, those titles and runs came without Sinner or Alcaraz in the draw, and Djokovic crashed out of Cincinnati in his first match. But form is form. These players arrive in New York with real momentum, not just wishful thinking.

Tiafoe has lived with that 23-year drought hanging over him for his entire career. He brushed off the idea that a weakened field changes his mission.

“It’s the same conversation,” he said Friday. “Still gotta beat seven guys, however way you slice it.”

He’s right. The math never changes. The opportunity does.

There’s another twist. No one has successfully defended the U.S. Open men’s singles title since Roger Federer completed his five-in-a-row run in 2008. The tournament has become the most unforgiving of the Slams for champions trying to repeat. Alcaraz, even if healthy, would have been fighting history as much as opponents.

With Sinner sidelined and Alcaraz uncertain, the door swings open for others. Zverev, now world No. 2, already broke through for his first major earlier this year. World No. 6 Flavio Cobolli arrives brimming with confidence after a lively run to the final of the revamped mixed doubles event alongside Belinda Bencic. Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked No. 4 and the top North American on the ATP Tour, has the tools to thrive on these courts. The question is whether he can harness them over seven matches in this cauldron.

Shelton and Fritz lurk just behind in the top 10, both armed with the kind of aggressive, first-strike tennis that can dominate hard courts. For once, the idea of an American man lifting the trophy here doesn’t feel like nostalgia. It feels like a plausible outcome.

And somewhere in the middle of all that chaos stands Djokovic, 39 years old, still chasing history, still refusing to fade.

Sabalenka’s target, Gauff’s charge

On the women’s side, the picture at the top looks clearer, at least on paper.

Coco Gauff arrives in New York riding a wave. She stormed through the Cincinnati Open, winning in dominant fashion and sending a message that she’s ready to climb back into the WTA top three — she sits at No. 4 now — and add a second U.S. Open title to her résumé. Cincinnati has often served as a weather vane for New York form. If that holds true again, Gauff is poised for another deep run.

But this is still Aryna Sabalenka’s tournament to lose. Her power game, when dialed in, can bulldoze any draw, any surface. She remains the benchmark in this field.

Pegula, beyond her role as the opening act on Ashe, has her own personal storyline: revenge. Gauff beat her in Cincinnati, and the U.S. Open gives Pegula a chance to reassert herself on home soil in front of a crowd that has grown to expect her in the latter stages.

Mirra Andreeva, fresh from a breakthrough season that already includes a Roland Garros title, will try to cap her year with a second major. Few teenagers manage to back up a first Slam so quickly. She plays with the kind of fearlessness that makes that possibility feel very real.

Then there’s Iga Świątek. Six Grand Slam titles already. One U.S. Open crown, in 2022. She has dominated clay, mastered Paris, and now hunts a second hard-court major to add another layer to her legacy. A seventh Slam would reinforce her status as the standard-bearer of this generation, even in a draw packed with American storylines.

A calm before the noise

For now, the chaos is still an hour away.

At 9 a.m. ET, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center feels almost serene. The gates stay closed until 9:30. Vendors set up, ushers take their positions, and staff move through the concourses before the crowds flood in. The stadiums sit open under a flawless blue sky, the kind of late-summer New York day that makes hard courts shimmer.

The temperature sits at 71.6 F (22 C), expected to climb to 82 F (28 C) by afternoon. Ideal conditions. Players slip onto the practice courts, chasing a last pocket of quiet before the noise takes over. Paula Badosa walks by with her coaches, one of many faces trying to fine-tune details that will decide entire seasons.

Less than 90 minutes to first ball. A wounded field. A 23-year American wait. A Williams reunion. Djokovic chasing 25. Gauff hunting No. 2. Świątek pushing for No. 7.

The stage is ready. Now the question is who will own it.