New York, Aug 27 (IANS) With World No.1 Jannik Sinner out of action due to an injury, Grand Slam titleholders Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev will be among the main contenders and will lead the top and bottom halves of the men’s singles main draw at the 2026 US Open, which was released here on Thursday.
In Sinner’s absence, Zverev is the top seed and will anchor the top half of the season’s last Grand Slam tournament, while the bottom half will be led by No. 2 seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who is joined by past champions Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic.
Alcaraz is back after a five-month layoff due to a wrist injury sustained in the early part of the European red clay swing, and he is hankering to reclaim his title and lift the US Open trophy for the third time in five years. However, with his lack of match play, the reigning Roland Garros champion and Wimbledon finalist Zverev has his sights set on becoming the King of Queens after he was denied the title by Dominic Thiem in the 2020 final.
The Spaniard leads their head-to-head 7-6, most recently defeating Zverev in a five-set epic en route to his Australian Open title in January, and in last year’s Cincinnati Open semifinals. Zverev saw an opening in Paris with Alcaraz out of the draw and Sinner’s early-round loss, and will be hoping to take advantage of a tournament that once again only has one member of the New Two.
Zverev will open his campaign against Lorenzo Sonego of Italy in the first round while Alcaraz will start against Roman Safiullin, the World No. 98.
In an unusual turn of events, every man who has previously lifted the US Open trophy—Alcaraz (2022, 2025), Djokovic (2011, 2015, 2018, 2023), Medvedev (2021), Wawrinka (2016) and Cilic (2014)—is in the second half of the draw. If the retiring Wawrinka makes it past 2019 semifinalist Matteo Berrettini in the first round, he and Djokovic are likely to have a rematch of their iconic 2016 final.
With Sinner sitting this one out, Djokovic must see this year’s Flushing fortnight as a prime opportunity to claim a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title, as the Italian has won five of their last six matches. The Serb is projected to play the Spaniard in the semifinals—a rematch of their semifinal faceoff in Melbourne nine months ago.
The local fans will once again be keeping an eye on which American male player can win the US Open title. No American man has won their home Slam since Andy Roddick in 2003. However, players representing America have had an excellent summer in 2026, winning titles and making deep runs during the North American hard-court swing.
No. 8 seed and top-ranked American Ben Shelton lifted the title at the Masters 1000 in Canada for the second year in a row, and reached the quarterfinals at Washington, D.C., in addition to winning the trophies in Dallas, Munich and Stuttgart. Taylor Fritz claimed his first crown of the year in D.C., while finishing runner-up to Shelton and Frances Tiafoe at three other tournaments this year. Fritz was also the 2024 finalist, falling to Sinner after notching wins against Berrettini, Casper Ruud, Zverev and Tiafoe.
Tiafoe defeated three Top 15 players during his run to the Cincinnati final, and he thrives on the energy of the New York crowd, converting their cheers into powerful groundstrokes that can stump even the best players, and combining it with a sense of showmanship that few can replicate.
World No. 17 Brandon Nakashima can’t be overlooked after reaching the Montreal final before falling to Shelton, and he backed it up the next week by getting to the Cincy semis before being bested by Tiafoe. Of course, young gun Learner Tien is also dangerous in any draw, winning a title in Geneva and reaching the semifinals at Delray Beach and Montreal, in addition to his show-stopping quarterfinal runs at the Australian Open and Indian Wells.
–IANS
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