{"id":1031417,"date":"2026-08-29T17:57:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:57:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1031417\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T17:57:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T17:57:17","slug":"u-s-open-storylines-two-long-title-waits-converge-as-williams-sisters-return-to-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1031417\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Open storylines: Two long title waits converge as Williams sisters return to New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> defend a title that no man has defended in 17 years \u2014 while coming back from the injury tennis stars fear most?<\/p>\n

Will 2026 make tennis reconsider what parity really is?<\/p>\n

Is Venus and Serena Williams\u2019 doubles partnership<\/a> the start of another ending?<\/p>\n

And what about the impact of rising ticket prices and renovating the biggest stadium in the sport<\/a>?<\/p>\n

The 2026 U.S. Open promises to be a cracker. Here, The Athletic\u2019s tennis writers, Ava Wallace and Matt Futterman, chart some of the key storylines to follow over the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

Will one of the most immovable records in men\u2019s tennis fall?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At this year\u2019s U.S. Open, two of the longest waits in men\u2019s tennis will collide more meaningfully than they have at any time in the past few years.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 23 years since an American won a Grand Slam title. That was Andy Roddick at the U.S. Open in 2003. On paper, this tournament looks like as ripe an opportunity as there has been in a while to snap that streak.<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner, the world No. 1, is out with a knee injury. Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champion, hasn\u2019t played in four months. He\u2019s coming back from a wrist injury, a terrifying plight for any player.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic is 39 and has played one match since Wimbledon. Alexander Zverev, the No. 1 seed, was suboptimal in the tuneups for the event.<\/p>\n

Now consider the top Americans.<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz won the D.C. Open. Ben Shelton won the Canadian Open. Frances Tiafoe was a set away from winning the Cincinnati Open. Granted, Sinner and Alcaraz didn\u2019t play any of those tournaments, and Djokovic lost his first match in Cincinnati, but these guys are in form.<\/p>\n

Tiafoe has been hearing about that streak his entire career. He said the state of the opposition hasn\u2019t changed the math.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same conversation,\u201d he said in a news conference Friday. \u201cStill gotta beat seven guys, however way you slice it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another wrinkle. The U.S. Open men\u2019s singles has been undefendable since Roger Federer won his fifth consecutive title in New York in 2008. A healthy and prepared Alcaraz would be a runaway favorite for the title. And while not even he knows how he will hold up in the face of competition after missing a third of a year, so much of the 23-year-old\u2019s remarkable career to date has involved doing the near-impossible.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Futterman<\/p>\n

U.S. Open 2026 preview<\/p>\n

Ava Wallace and Jen Klockner<\/p>\n

Will the fourth Slam of the year make tennis reconsider what an \u2018open\u2019 draw really is?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most-used word in tennis this year might be \u201copen.\u201d Not because three of four Grand Slams have the word right there in the name, but because of the opportunities that have been available to players.<\/p>\n

When Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic lost shockingly early at the French Open, where defending champion Carlos Alcaraz was already out with an injury, that men\u2019s draw was dubbed \u201copen.\u201d The same word cropped up during the men\u2019s draw at the start of Wimbledon, when pundits questioned whether Sinner, after wilting in the sun in both Melbourne and Paris, could withstand a British heat wave.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t just the men; on the women\u2019s side, the French Open was considered somewhat open, though Mirra Andreeva was still favored, after No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka lost in the quarterfinals. Wimbledon was called the same because the group of women who had been dominating Grand Slams in recent years \u2014 Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Iga \u015awi\u0105tek and Coco Gauff \u2014 were all wrangling their own on-court struggles.<\/p>\n

But tennis is a sport of order.<\/p>\n

The past two men\u2019s major champions were then-world No. 3 Alexander Zverev, long considered the best player without a Grand Slam trophy, and Sinner. Mirra Andreeva, pegged early in her career as a future major champion, was hardly a surprise as a French Open winner. Even Linda Noskov\u00e1\u2019s triumph at Wimbledon follows a pattern \u2014 when was the last time a woman who was expected to win Wimbledon actually won Wimbledon? Ash Barty in 2021?<\/p>\n

This U.S. Open might finally convince the sport to reframe its use of the word \u201copen,\u201d or at least convince it that it wasn\u2019t the right word for this year.<\/p>\n

There is no denying the opportunity that exists in the men\u2019s draw over the next two weeks. But contenders have not been stepping up in a way that implies the sport is without hierarchy, even at the level below Sinner and Alcaraz.<\/p>\n

And Gauff\u2019s, \u015awi\u0105tek\u2019s and Jessica Pegula\u2019s performances on hard courts this summer have made it clear women\u2019s tennis is not a free-for-all, and \u201copen\u201d hasn\u2019t been the correct word for some time. Depending on who wins the U.S. Open, \u201cparity,\u201d especially in the women\u2019s game, might be.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ava Wallace<\/p>\n

Is Venus and Serena Williams\u2019 New York reunion the start of another ending?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The tennis world missed out on watching Venus and Serena Williams play doubles together at Wimbledon after Serena withdrew from the event with a knee injury she sustained in her first-round singles loss to Australian Maya Joint.<\/p>\n

That makes their reunion in New York just a little more special. The sisters last played together at a Grand Slam here at the U.S. Open in 2022, the year Serena \u201cevolved\u201d away from tennis. They lost their first-round match that year to a Czech team featuring a 17-year-old Linda Noskov\u00e1, and doubles felt a bit like an addendum, an added perk onto what was full-blown Serena-mania in the singles draw.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fun that doubles feels like a more central event this time, despite Venus\u2019 anticipated first-round singles matchup against fellow American and former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin. Serena isn\u2019t playing singles, meaning she can put all of her focus into the doubles, where she\u2019s been looking solid lately (one popular theory earlier this summer as to why she was returning to tennis was so she could play doubles with Venus in New York near what could be the end of her sister\u2019s career).<\/p>\n

Serena\u2019s pairing with Carlos Alcaraz for the mixed doubles event was a great combination of loose, lighthearted atmosphere and seriously impressive tennis. In her most recent outing with Venus, at the Cincinnati Open, they took singles players Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns to a third-set tiebreak and came a few points from a comeback win.<\/p>\n

However they perform, it\u2019s always a good idea to soak up the Williams sisters in New York \u2014 and whatever happens if a match point does not go their way.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ava Wallace<\/p>\n

How will the U.S. Open ticketing debate affect the tournament proper?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heading into the tournament, there has been more talk about ticket prices than about tennis.<\/p>\n

Surging prices on the official resale market<\/a> have seen grounds passes go for $350, while the $800M renovation of Arthur Ashe Stadium has increased the proportion of luxury seating inside the biggest bowl in the sport.<\/p>\n

The USTA owns and organizes the event on public land, in a public park, on courts open to the public most of the year. It has mostly kept access to qualifying week, also known as Fan Week, free, outside of mixed doubles sessions and exhibition events. About a quarter of a million fans pass through the gates in the week leading up to the main tournament, most of them for free.<\/p>\n

The remaining unknown is how those rising prices and seating changes will affect the event proper. What will the courtside atmosphere be like when seats right by the action are more expensive than before? Who will have picked up those resold grounds passes, some of which were going at six times face value? Will it feel as if there are two different tournaments, one for those who can stomach over $1,000 for a day of tennis and one for those who cannot?<\/p>\n

Face value comes from dividing the average price of the full series subscription by the 27 sessions included in the subscription. Ticketmaster figures are the average of resale prices for Aug. 31 for each ticket area, as of Aug. 19. <\/p>\n

The organization worked with New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani to make 1,000 tickets available at more affordable prices earlier this week. That will represent about one-tenth of one percent of the tickets used during the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

One thing to watch is the dynamic pricing of the secondary market. As match time approaches and sellers confront the possibility of getting stuck with an unsold ticket, prices should drop, at least during the first days of the tournament. Scheduling for each day, in terms of which stars are playing when, will also have an impact.<\/p>\n

Some of that occurred even for the mixed doubles during Fan Week. Will it happen again?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Futterman<\/p>\n

U.S. Open 2026: Women\u2019s singles bracket<\/strong>U.S. Open 2026: Men\u2019s singles bracket<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tell us which storylines you are looking out for in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can Carlos Alcaraz defend a title that no man has defended in 17 years \u2014 while coming back…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1031418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[48],"tags":[392,3777,62,222,1464,29618,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1031417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-culture","tag-olympics","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-tennis","tag-top-sports-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117180094704824059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1031418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}