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The 146th edition of America’s oldest tennis tournament promises to be every bit as entertaining as last year’s instalment, which saw a series of absorbing battles in both the men’s and women’s divisions.
Carlos Alcaraz arrives in New York as the defending champion after defeating Jannik Sinner in the 2025 showpiece, while Aryna Sabalenka is hoping to claim a third consecutive US Open title.
In addition to the men’s and women’s singles draw, a further 17 events – men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, ten adult and junior wheelchair disciplines, boys’ singles, girls’ singles, boys’ doubles, and girls’ doubles – will take place over the course of an extremely busy three-week period. The mixed doubles competition set the ball rolling on Tuesday as part of the US Open’s ever-expanding ‘fan’ week, which also stages all qualifying matches.
The action culminates with the men’s and women’s singles finals on the second weekend of September, before attention begins to turn to the year-end championships in just over two months’ time.
2026 US Open – Key information
Dates: August 30th – September 13th
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (New York City)
TV Channels: Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Tennis, and Sky Sports+
Favourites: Men’s Singles – Carlos Alcaraz: 8/5, Alexander Zverev: 3/1
Women’s Singles – Aryna Sabalenka: 3/1, Iga Świątek: 5/1
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Schedule
Although the US Open officially starts on Sunday, tennis enthusiasts are given early access to Flushing Meadows during fan week.
As well as being able to watch the entire mixed doubles and qualifying programmes, fans can enjoy a range of family activities, interactive experiences, and guest appearances from legends of the game. The fun kicked off with the Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, with the excitement then building towards Saturday’s induction ceremony for this year’s class of Hall of Famers.
However, the fortnight after fan week is when the US Open really comes alive, as an expected quarter of a million people flood into the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The first two rounds of the men’s and women’s singles events dominate the opening three days of action, ahead of the arrival of the tournament’s junior participants. The first weekend is packed to the rafters with men’s and women’s doubles clashes, before the quad wheelchair discipline is introduced the following Tuesday. The next few days are perhaps the most intensive segment of the schedule, as the latter stages of most competitions unfold.
With the women’s doubles, wheelchair doubles, quad wheelchair doubles and junior wheelchair singles & doubles events wrapping up on Friday 11th September, the US Open’s final two days are a little less action-packed than the preceding week.
Saturday afternoon hosts the men’s doubles, men’s & women’s wheelchair singles, quad wheelchair singles, and junior singles & doubles finals, before the women’s champion is determined as the sun sets on the iconic Arthur Ashe Stadium. The last two remaining competitors in the men’s division then go toe-to-toe on Sunday, with the opening serve scheduled for 14:00 (BST).
Where to watch on TV or live stream?
Sky Sports are providing exclusive live coverage of the 2026 US Open, having struck a lucrative broadcasting deal with tournament organisers almost four years ago. The network completely disengaged from tennis in 2017, enabling Amazon to hoover up screening rights for the ATP and WTA Tours.
However, Sky Sports reinvigorated their interest in the sport following the 2021 US Open, when British teenager Emma Raducanu stormed to an unlikely first major title.
The tournament will be routinely shown on Sky Sports+ and Sky Sports Tennis, with key matches reserved for Sky Sports Main Event.
Prize money
This season’s US Open presides over the largest prize kitty in tennis history, with an eye-watering $108m set to be distributed throughout the next few weeks. That figure represents a colossal 20% increase on 2025, while the men’s and women’s singles champions will also take a larger cut than they have in previous years.
Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka received $5m for their endeavours last year, but the 2026 winners are set to bank a further $500,000 each.
Almost 2% of this year’s rewards pot is ringfenced for the newly-established players’ welfare fund, an initiative that aims to at least partially address a number of concerns raised by those on the ATP and WTA tours. The fund is designed to support players in paying for essential costs, such as those required for healthcare, pensions, and maternity leave.
The creation of a Grand Slam Player Council – a channel for communication between participants and organisers – is also part of the effort to diffuse criticism for the sport’s leading figures, who recently limited their media appearances to just 15 minutes at the French Open and Wimbledon.
Favourites
With six different winners across the season’s opening three Grand Slams, it’s difficult to predict who will emerge triumphant in both the men’s and women’s singles events.
Although Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal due to a niggling knee injury makes Carlos Alcaraz the clear favourite, most expect a ferocious battle for supremacy. The Spaniard is only just returning following four months out with a wrist issue, while several of his rivals have the capacity to deliver the goods in any given tournament.
The bookmakers have unsurprisingly installed Aryna Sabalenka as the favourite to prevail in the women’s division, but a host of players – including the likes of former US Open champions Iga Świątek, Coco Gauff, and Naomi Osaka – could once again leave Flushing Meadows with silverware.
We review the recent form of those most likely to challenge for the men’s and women’s titles below:
Carlos Alcaraz (8/5)
Carlos Alcaraz hasn’t played a competitive match since the middle of April, when he pulled out of the Barcelona Open following his first-round victory over Finnish ace Otto Virtanen. Ahead of being sidelined for an extended spell, the current world number two enjoyed an extremely positive start to the season.
After completing the career Grand Slam by defeating ten-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic in Melbourne, he scooped his maiden Qatar Open crown. Alcaraz endured a series of difficult tests en route to the final in Doha, edging past French pair Arthur Rinderknech and Valentin Royer before facing a similar onslaught against Russian duo Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev. He then hammered Arthur Fils – another Frenchman – to clinch the trophy, marking a relatively comfortable end to a gruelling week.
A semi-final appearance at Indian Wells then followed, but the 23-year-old came unstuck in the second leg of the Sunshine Swing, losing in the third round to the lowest-ranked seed Sebastian Korda. Alcaraz’s injury in Catalonia came just several days prior to his strong display at the Monte Carlo Masters, where he lost in the final to familiar foe Jannik Sinner.
The Murcia-born superstar has already twice won the US Open, securing his maiden major in 2022 before becoming the youngest player in history – at the modest age of 22 years and 125 days old – to land multiple Grand Slams on all three surfaces.
Alexander Zverev (3/1)
Throughout the opening few months of the 2026 campaign, it seemed as if Alexander Zverev was destined to never again advance beyond the semi-final stage of a singles competition.
The giant German reached the last four of the Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami Open, the Monte Carlo Masters, and the Bavarian International Championships, but couldn’t secure safe passage through to the final in any instance. Nevertheless, he did find something to celebrate in the party town of Acapulco, where he acquired another Mexican Open doubles title (having claimed one with his brother seven years earlier) alongside teammate and close friend Marcelo Melo.
As spring slowly turned into summer, Zverev’s luck began to turn. The brilliance of Jannik Sinner blocked him at the final hurdle as he chased a third Madrid Open crown, but a landmark first Grand Slam triumph – attained on the famous clay courts of Roland-Garros – ensured his defeat in the Spanish capital was soon forgotten.
Another loss to the all-conquering Italian followed in the Wimbledon showpiece, but the 29-year-old will have taken plenty of comfort from his best-ever performance at SW19.
Zverev has never been crowned champion at Flushing Meadows, but did appear in the coronavirus-impacted 2020 US Open final. However, he was unable to find a way past Dominic Thiem in an epic clash at an eerily empty Arthur Ashe Stadium, enabling the Austrian to win the first and only Grand Slam of his illustrious career.
Aryna Sabalenka (3/1)
After winning the Brisbane International at the turn of the year, Aryna Sabalenka continued her excellent form Down Under at Melbourne Park. The long-time world number one managed to reach a fourth consecutive Australian Open final, but Elena Rybakina denied her a fifth Grand Slam crown.
However, she soon got her revenge. In early March, Sabalenka battled through a bruising three-set encounter to edge past the talented Kazakhstani at Indian Wells. That victory provided a platform for further success at the Miami Open, where she completed a scintillating Sunshine Double by defeating Floridian Coco Gauff in her own backyard.
But a rocky period was just around the corner. The Belarusian initially suffered two sobering quarter-final exits, firstly relinquishing her Madrid Open crown before once again falling short at Roland-Garros. A run to the German Open semi-finals on Berlin’s grass courts looked to have served as solid preparation for Wimbledon, but she was surprisingly beaten by fourth-round opponent Naomi Osaka at the All England Club.
This time last year, Sabalenka became the first woman to retain the US Open singles title since 2014, when homegrown hero Serena Williams registered her third consecutive success at Flushing Meadows.
Iga Świątek (5/1)
It’s been a challenging eight months for Iga Świątek, whose 2026 campaign has been defined by a remarkable run of quarter-final eliminations.
The powerful Pole failed to progress beyond the last eight at the Australian Open, Qatar Open, Indian Wells, and the Stuttgart Open, undermining her bid to return to the summit of the WTA rankings. Even more concerningly, Świątek deservedly lost to Billie Jean King Cup teammate Magda Linette in the second round of the Miami Open, extending her poor run on hard court surfaces.
Apart from several fleeting moments of respite, such as Poland’s historic United Cup triumph and her semi-final outing at the Italian Open, the first half of the season was a source of constant disappointment. This was perhaps best illustrated by her subpar performances at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon, exiting both of these Grand Slams long before their respective latter stages.
However, there appears to be light at the end of a pretty dark tunnel. After hammering Elena Rybakina in the final of the prestigious Canadian Open, the four-time French Open champion impressively navigated her way to the last four during the recent WTA 1000 meeting in Cincinnati.
Świątek has been beaten by American opponents at the quarter-final stage of the tournament’s previous two editions, but participated in the last US Open women’s singles final that didn’t feature any native representatives. That particular match-up came in 2022, when she defeated Tunisian star Ons Jabeur in straight sets.