{"id":58839,"date":"2026-08-28T00:05:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/58839\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T00:05:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T00:05:33","slug":"alcarazs-u-s-open-title-defence-begins-against-safiullin-venus-williams-plays-kenin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/58839\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcaraz\u2019s U.S. Open title defence begins against Safiullin, Venus Williams plays Kenin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz, of Spain, returns the ball during a mixed doubles match at the U.S. Open on Tuesday in New York.Yuki Iwamura\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Carlos Alcaraz will open the defence of his U.S. Open title against an opponent who made a strong run at Wimbledon while the Spaniard was sidelined with an injury.<\/p>\n

Along with some interesting opening-round matches, the draws for men\u2019s and women\u2019s singles Thursday delivered one what-could-have-been possibility: Had Serena Williams decided to play, there could have been a Williams sisters showdown in Round 1.<\/p>\n

When Venus Williams was given a wild card into the event at 46, the U.S. Tennis Association initially held one spot, which surely would have gone to Serena if the six-time U.S. Open champion wanted to play after returning to tennis for the first time since 2022. When the 44-year-old decided to only compete in doubles, the USTA awarded that last wild card over the weekend to American Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Venus Williams and Kenin were randomly drawn to face each other.<\/p>\n

Main draw play at the final Grand Slam tournament of the season begins Sunday.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz is the No. 2 seed and will face Roman Safiullin. It will be Alcaraz\u2019s first singles match since April, after the two-time U.S. Open champion was forced to miss the French Open and Wimbledon because of a right wrist injury.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard returned to play with Serena Williams in the mixed doubles tournament and looked rusty. He may have to be sharper against Safiullin, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, upsetting Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca along the way before falling to 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic in four sets.<\/p>\n

Safiullin also upset Alcaraz, ranked No. 2 at the time, in the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris in 2023. Alcaraz avenged that loss the following year at the Paris Olympics in their lone other meeting.<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime, the top-seeded Canadian at No. 3, will open against Australia\u2019s Rinky Hijikata.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

F\u00e9lix Auger-Aliassime of Canada serves in his mixed doubles match at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Tuesday in New York.Sarah Stier\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., drew Serbia\u2019s Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round, while No. 31 seed Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., will face China\u2019s Zhang Shuai in the women\u2019s draw.<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s Gabriel Diallo withdrew from the men\u2019s singles draw last week as he continues to recover from a leg injury.<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev, the French Open champion who became the No. 1 seed in New York when Jannik Sinner pulled out with a knee injury, will open against Italian Lorenzo Sonego.<\/p>\n

Two-time defending women\u2019s champion Aryna Sabalenka opens against Camila Osorio. The top-ranked Sabalenka, who has struggled during the North American hard-court season, could face Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, the No. 6 seed, in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The other potential women\u2019s quarter-finals: No. 2 Elena Rybakina vs. No. 8 Iga Swiatek, No. 3 Jessica Pegula vs. No. 7 Karolina Muchova, and No. 4 Coco Gauff vs. No. 5 Mirra Andreeva, the French Open champion.<\/p>\n

Pegula, who opens against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, would play the Williams-Kenin winner in the second round.<\/p>\n

The potential men\u2019s quarters: No. 1 Zverev vs. No. 6 Alex de Minaur, No. 2 Alcaraz vs. No. 8 Ben Shelton, Auger-Aliassime vs. No. 5 Flavio Cobolli, and No. 4 Djokovic vs. No. 7 Daniil Medvedev.<\/p>\n

No. 10 seed Arthur Fils, coming off the title in the Cincinnati Open, faces two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was once ranked No. 3, in the first round. Stan Wawrinka, the 2016 U.S. Open champion who received a wild card to play in his final Grand Slam tournament before retiring, faces Matteo Berrettini, the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, to open a second straight major tournament. Berrettini won in four sets \u2013 all tiebreakers \u2013 at the All England Club.<\/p>\n

Rublev, the No. 23 seed, faces 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic. No. 13 Lorenzo Musetti, who reached the quarter-finals in New York last year, opens against Britain\u2019s Arthur Fery, who lost to Zverev in the Wimbledon semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Some first-round matches won\u2019t be determined until the conclusion of the qualifying tournaments, which were scheduled to finish Thursday. Potential women\u2019s contenders such as No. 11 Marta Kostyuk and No. 17 Alex Eala were among those waiting to see who they would face in their openers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Carlos Alcaraz, of Spain, returns the ball during a mixed doubles match at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1457,1443,1458,1406,1435,1459,425,1434,1448,1449,1445,1436,1433,1453,1455,1452,1447,1442,1470,1437,1438,763,1444,681,543,1460,1440,1465,1466,1468,1463,1467,1461,1464,1439,986,1451,32,1450,1462,1291,1454,28,1456,1446,1441,783,1469],"class_list":["post-58839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-tennis","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}