2026 U.S. Open Preview: Stars Align for New York's Grand Slam

The gates slide open on another New York fortnight, and the 2026 U.S. Open steps into the light.

By midday, Arthur Ashe Stadium will be full and loud. Before that, the place hums quietly at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center — vendors setting up, staff moving in formation, players sneaking in last practice swings under a clear blue sky. The temperature sits at a forgiving 71.6 F (22 C), climbing toward 82 F (28 C). Less than 90 minutes to first ball, and the calm is already starting to crack.

Pegula opens the show, Medvedev seeks redemption

Jessica Pegula, a U.S. Open finalist two years ago, has the honor of opening play on Ashe at 12 p.m. ET. She faces Elena-Gabriela Ruse, a dangerous first-round opponent but the kind of match Pegula simply has to control if she wants to prove that 2024 was not a one-off.

Her summer has been solid, if not spectacular. The draw gives her a platform, the schedule gives her the spotlight, and the stakes are clear: this is the first step in what she hopes is a return to the final weekend.

Daniil Medvedev follows with something closer to a mission. The 2021 champion crashed out in the first round last year, an exit that never quite fit his reputation as one of the sport’s great hard-court problem-solvers. Today he gets Hugo Gaston and a chance to reset the narrative. Medvedev has never hidden how much New York suits him. He feeds off the noise, the night, the chaos. What he can’t afford is another early stumble.

Night lights, familiar names: Djokovic and Venus

When the sun dips, the star power goes up a notch.

Novak Djokovic, now 39, returns to a stadium that has framed some of his most bruising battles and most painful losses. He has played just one match since Wimbledon, and this U.S. Open arrives with more questions than usual around a player still chasing that 25th Grand Slam title. The field is wounded, the opportunity obvious, but his own rhythm is uncertain.

Venus Williams shares the marquee in the night session, a sentence that still carries weight in Queens. Her anticipated first-round singles meeting with fellow American and former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin is one of those matches that pulls in both nostalgics and purists: a legend against a player still trying to rediscover herself.

Yet for once, with Venus, singles may not be the main act.

The Williams sisters, one more time in New York

The tennis world never got the Wimbledon doubles reunion it craved. Serena Williams withdrew after a knee injury in her opening-round singles defeat to Australian Maya Joint, and the All England Club missed out on another chapter of the sisters’ partnership.

New York gets it instead, and that changes the feel of this tournament.

The last time Venus and Serena played Grand Slam doubles together was here in 2022, the year Serena said she was “evolving” away from tennis. That campaign was all about Serena’s singles run, the frenzy, the farewell tour. Doubles felt like a bonus. They went out early to a Czech pair that included a 17-year-old Linda Nosková, and the result barely dented the noise.

This time, doubles sits closer to the center of the story. Serena is not in the singles draw, free to pour everything into the partnership that defined so much of her career. She has looked sharp in recent doubles outings. One popular theory all summer was that her return hinged on this — the chance to play one more U.S. Open with Venus as her sister edges toward the finish line.

Her mixed doubles pairing with Carlos Alcaraz earlier this season showed how dangerous she still is when the ball is on her strings. That run combined a loose, playful mood with stretches of serious, elite tennis. In Cincinnati, she and Venus pushed Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns to a third-set tiebreak, coming within a few points of a comeback that would have sent a jolt through the locker room.

Whatever happens now, the instruction is simple: watch them. Soak in every changeover, every smile, every clenched fist. If a match point goes the wrong way, there are no guarantees how many more of these nights New York will get.

A 23-year wait meets a wounded field

On the men’s side, something else hangs over this tournament: 23 years of American frustration.

The last U.S. man to win a Grand Slam singles title was Andy Roddick here in 2003. Entire careers have come and gone under that statistic. This year, the door creaks open just a little wider.

Jannik Sinner, world No. 1, is out with a knee injury. Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion and the sport’s great young showman, hasn’t played in four months after wrist surgery. No one knows how that wrist will respond when the points get tight. Djokovic has barely competed since Wimbledon. Alexander Zverev, the top seed, looked short of his best in the lead-in events.

Against that backdrop, the American charge suddenly looks more threatening than hopeful.

Taylor Fritz won the D.C. Open. Ben Shelton took the Canadian Open. Frances Tiafoe came within a set of winning Cincinnati. Yes, Sinner and Alcaraz were absent from those tournaments, and Djokovic lost his opener in Cincinnati, but form is form. These are not flashes. They are results that build belief.

Tiafoe has lived with the 23-year storyline for as long as he has been relevant. He brushed off the idea that a weakened field changes the calculation.

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

He’s right. But this is as inviting a seven as the Americans have seen in years.

The broken duopoly and the open door

Not long ago, men’s tennis looked set for a new era defined by two names: Sinner and Alcaraz. They split the biggest prizes, trading blows in Grand Slam finals — Alcaraz at Roland Garros in an instant classic, Sinner at Wimbledon, Alcaraz again in New York. When Alcaraz completed his career Grand Slam at the Australian Open, the script seemed locked in.

Then the script tore.

Alcaraz injured his wrist in April, had surgery, and missed Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Sinner fell early in Paris, opening the path for Zverev’s long-awaited first major, then rebounded to win Wimbledon. Now Sinner’s knee has him sidelined for the U.S. Open, and Alcaraz arrives as a defending champion with no recent match play and a surgically repaired wrist.

So the question shifts. If not them, then who?

Zverev is now world No. 2 and carries the confidence of a Slam winner. World No. 6 Flavio Cobolli rides into New York buoyed by a lively run to the final of the new-look mixed doubles event with Belinda Bencic. World No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime is the highest-ranked North American on the ATP Tour; the courts, the conditions, the crowd — all of it should suit him here.

Shelton and Fritz lurk in the back end of the top 10, each with a recent title and the kind of weapons that can blast through two weeks if they catch fire. And still, in the middle of this shifting landscape, stands Djokovic, 39 years old and still chasing history.

This is no longer the neat, two-man future everyone expected. It’s messier. It’s better.

Sabalenka’s to lose, Gauff’s to seize

On the women’s side, the picture at the top has a different kind of clarity.

Coco Gauff arrives having bulldozed her way to the Cincinnati title. The hard courts, the speed, the confidence — everything points to a deep run and a push back into the top three of the WTA rankings from her current No. 4. She already owns one U.S. Open trophy. A second would feel less like a breakthrough and more like a confirmation.

Yet the favorite’s tag still rests on Aryna Sabalenka. Her power, her mentality, her recent Slam record: this is her tournament to lose. The draw also sets up a potential revenge path for Pegula, who will want another crack at Gauff after their Cincinnati meeting.

Mirra Andreeva, meanwhile, chases the perfect capstone to her breakout season. The Roland Garros champion now has a shot at a second major in the same year, on a surface that tests every part of her game. And then there is Iga Świątek, hunting a seventh Grand Slam title but only a second on hard courts after her 2022 U.S. Open win. Clay may be her kingdom, yet she knows exactly what it takes to conquer New York.

Morning calm, looming chaos

Walk the grounds around 9 a.m. ET and the contrast is striking. No fans yet — they come in at 9:30 — just staff moving in quiet rhythms and the odd star heading to practice. Paula Badosa and her team cut across the complex, one of dozens of players trying to steal a few peaceful minutes before the crowds arrive.

The sun is sharp, the skies are clean, and the sense of anticipation is unmistakable. By lunchtime, Arthur Ashe will be roaring for Pegula. By evening, Djokovic and Venus will take their turns under the lights. Somewhere in between, the Williams sisters will begin what could be their final shared chapter in this city.

The final Grand Slam of 2026 is open for the taking. The question is who, in a field full of opportunity and uncertainty, dares to grab it.