Young Star's Fast Rise In Tennis Could Make Her A Main Attraction At The U.S. Open

The 2026 U.S. Open tennis tournament is underway, with mixed doubles action that kicked off on Tuesday and the main draw set to begin in New York City next week.Carlos Alcaraz, last year’s men’s title winner, will attempt to defend his crown as he looks to come back from a wrist injury that’s kept him out of play since April. He took part in the mixed doubles competition alongside great Serena Williams, who made her return to tennis in June after her retirement from the sport nearly four years earlier. Alcaraz-Williams, much like the pairing of stars Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka, fell in the early rounds on Tuesday.Williams, who isn’t planning to play in the singles competition, is set to team up with her sister Venus for the women’s doubles next week, tournament organizers announced Wednesday. The two last played together at the U.S. Open in 2022.Top-ranked Jannik Sinner, meanwhile, has withdrawn from the tournament due to injury.On the women’s side, top-ranked Sabalenka looks to become the first woman since Williams to win three straight U.S. Open titles. Former U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff, fresh off a big Cincinnati Open win, is hoping to have similar success in Queens.The Grand Slam tournament is known to attract big names, including President Donald Trump, who has made a habit of positioning himself next to major sports events as he faces abysmal poll numbers amid his unpopular Iran war.It’s unclear whether Trump, whose appearance at last year’s men’s final prompted boos in Arthur Ashe Stadium, will return to his home borough of Queens when this year’s final goes down on Sept. 13.Check out our coverage below:Young Star's Fast Rise In Tennis Could Make Her A Main Attraction At The U.S. OpenAug 27 (Reuters) - Philippine tennis trailblazer Alexandra Eala has emerged as one of the sport’s fastest-rising players after a breakthrough season, and her growing fan base and improving game could make her one of the main attractions at the U.S. Open.Former world number four Mary Joe Fernandez said the scale and intensity of support for Eala had become increasingly apparent over the past year, recalling packed practice sessions at the Miami Open and vocal crowds at recent tournaments.“Her following, the fans that just come to watch her not just play her match, but to watch her practice, is off the charts,” ESPN commentator Fernandez told reporters on a conference call this week.“It’s just gotten bigger and bigger everywhere she goes.“It’s almost like she’s playing a Billie Jean King Cup match when she’s out there,” she added. “Every point is loud. Every point she wins, it feels like she’s won more than a point.”Eala claimed her first WTA title with a victory over Jessica Pegula in Washington this month and the 21-year-old’s triumph showed she is worthy of all the attention.“She was outstanding in Washington,” Fernandez said of Eala, who also beat Elina Svitolina and Naomi Osaka en route to the title.“Her game is really good. She backs it up.“She’s improved tremendously... She’s getting better and better.”Now ranked 18th in the world, Eala is the highest-ranked Filipino and Southeast Asian player in WTA history, and her rise presents an opportunity for the WTA to build interest in the Philippines and among its large global diaspora, Fernandez said.Fellow ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe said U.S. Open organisers should ensure Eala gets time on one of the tournament’s larger courts.“The USTA better make sure they put her on big courts,” McEnroe said. “I think the crowd is going to be wild for her. It’s going to be a great story.”(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Peter Rutherford )Latest Live UpdatesCoco Gauff's Mom Has Just 1 'Blunt But Necessary' U.S. Open Ask — And Fans Are Here For ItCandi Gauff, the mother of 2023 U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff, took to Instagram on Thursday with a note to her loved ones: She can’t help EVERYONE see her tennis star daughter play in this year’s tournament.“I apologize in advance for this blunt, but necessary statement. I know you are very excited about Coco playing in the US Open. Me too!!! Coco’s guest ticket request have already been accounted for,” she wrote alongside a pic of her daughter celebrating her Cincinnati Open title on Sunday.“Unfortunately, I will not be able to hook you up with a ticket.”She went on to suggest that her friends and family should arrange to buy a ticket on their own and, in the future, not to ask for more than two.“Coco is grown now and she has her own friends that she is honoring tickets for the match. Thank you for your continued support,” she concluded.The comment from Candi Gauff — who, along with her husband, Corey, have rallied behind their daughter’s tennis dreams since she was a child — was met with a number of witty replies, including one user who wrote, “She said GET OFF MY PHONE 😂,” and another who suggested, “Tell em to ask Mamdani 😂” (referring to the New York City mayor’s “affordable” ticket program).Former tennis player Ayan Broomfield, who is dating men’s star Frances Tiafoe, commented, “I wish captions could be retweeted 😂😂😂😂😂😂.”Gauff hopes to ride the wave of her Cincy success in New York this year, starting with her opening round singles match against Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez.Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sabalenka And Pegula: Here's Where The Stars Will Begin The 2026 U.S. OpenNEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz will open the defense of his U.S. Open title against an opponent who made a strong run at Wimbledon while the Spaniard was sidelined with an injury.Alcaraz is the No. 2 seed and will face Roman Safiullin. It will be Alcaraz’s 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.Two-time defending women’s 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 quarterfinals.Main draw play at the final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season begins Sunday.Read more:Aryna Sabalenka Eyeing U.S. Open Three-PeatBENGALURU, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Aryna Sabalenka will attempt to become the first woman since Serena Williams to capture three consecutive titles at the U.S. Open, though a sharp dip in form has clouded what once looked like an inevitable march toward the milestone.Back-to-back titles forged by a powerful and precise game established the 28-year-old as the dominant force at Flushing Meadows, where no woman has enjoyed a comparable run since American great Williams won three in a row from 2012-14.Sabalenka looked poised to tighten her grip on the women’s game following hardcourt triumphs at Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami but her momentum has suddenly stalled, with a 17-7 win-loss record since April underlining a loss of consistency.With Sabalenka’s world number one ranking under threat from Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, any stumble in New York could prove costly.The four-times Grand Slam champion is well aware she has a target on her back.“Everyone wants to beat you,” she said ahead of the Cincinnati Open tune-up event, where she lost in the round of 16 to Czech outsider Sara Bejlek.“It’s the same if you’re number one, number two, number 10. It doesn’t really matter what the ranking is ... I love having a target on my back.“I like to see the younger generation looking up to me and getting inspired by me. But they’re going to be inspired even if I drop in the rankings a bit. Hopefully it’ll never happen.“As long as I focus on developing myself as a player and a person, the ranking doesn’t really matter.”ESPN commentator Mary Joe Fernandez said Sabalenka’s title defense was on shaky ground.“She has not reached a final since winning Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back,” the former world number four said.“She struggled a bit winning the big points. She’s lost a couple big leads in some events. So she’s vulnerable.”Her downturn in form prompted tennis analyst Rick Macci to question whether Sabalenka was in the right frame of mind coming into the year’s final Grand Slam.“Right now Sabalenka is competing against herself,” Macci, who previously coached Williams in the early 1990s, posted on social media.“When an athlete does this you can still get a few wins but mentally your confidence spins. This year in New York it is the U.S. WIDE Open for the WTA as 15 different players could have the final say.”(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford )Coco Gauff Hopes To Keep Winning Momentum Going In QueensAug 27 (Reuters) - After claiming her first title of the season at the Cincinnati Open, Coco Gauff will be aiming to keep her winning momentum going and make a championship run at the U.S. Open in New York as she seeks a third Grand Slam crown.The American world number four had been itching for a trophy this year, having come close on several occasions.She lost in the finals in Miami and Rome and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and in Toronto before defeating compatriot Jessica Pegula for the Cincinnati title.Gauff will lean on that experience heading into the U.S. Open.“It’s going to be tough in New York, but just knowing the quality wins that I had this week, knowing that I’m able to figure it out even if I’m not playing my best, but also knowing that I can play that great tennis that I felt like I was playing this week,” Gauff told reporters after her final victory.“Just learning to be more aggressive in these points and hopefully I can use the experience here in New York.”The 22-year-old also feels more confident about her game, having welcomed biomechanics specialist Gavin MacMillan onto her team last year to help address issues with her serve.She still leads the tour in double faults this season but is happy with her progress.“I think I’m just going big, honestly. I feel like I’m really confident on my serve now, so I’m going for it pretty much almost all times, unless I feel like my percentage is too low,” Gauff told the Tennis Channel after her second-round victory over Liudmila Samsonova in Cincinnati.“But I think the biggest thing that has made the difference is just mixing up the versatility. I feel like I’m mixing it up a lot on my serve, so it’s tough to read, and, yeah, I think I’m doing a good job with that and just trying to keep improving.”With a trophy under her belt, Gauff is tuning out criticism and riding a wave of momentum into New York, where she won her first Grand Slam title in 2023.“The most important part for me that I’ve learned is just to focus on me and continuing to get better,” said Gauff.“Like with everything, hard work doesn’t lie and the results will come. That’s the thing I’ve learned, just to trust the process.”(Reporting by Nicole Fernandes in Toronto; Editing by Ken Ferris)Matching Czech Duo Wins Mixed Doubles Title At The U.S. OpenNEW YORK (AP) — Jakub Mensik texted Karolina Muchova on the eve of the U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament so they could coordinate their outfits. Looking good on the court is important, he figured.Now they look like a million bucks.Muchova and Mensik won the title Wednesday night in their first time playing together, beating Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 1-6 (10-6).The Czech duo, wearing the same pink tops and maroon bottoms they settled on Monday, pulled out match tiebreakers in both matches on the second night of the two-day event, fueled by Mensik’s powerful serve combined with some good hands near the net. He put away the final with an ace to earn $1 million for him and Muchova to share.“I think at the end, really the matching outfit made the difference for us,” Muchova said.They were a point from losing in the semifinals, erasing two match points and running off the final four to edge Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev 5-4 (6), 3-5 (11-9).Quite a performance, considering Mensik said he had never played in a mixed doubles event.“My first mixed doubles, 100% win rate,” he said.Bencic and Cobolli rallied to end the run of spouses Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils in the first semifinal with a 4-5 (7), 4-1 (10-5) victory.They appeared headed toward a matchup with Andreeva and Rublev, who were smiling and pumping their fists after opening the lead in the match tiebreaker. Muchova flung her racket to the court in disgust after missing a volley that gave the Russians a 7-5 lead.But the Wimbledon women’s runner-up never lost belief, thanks in part to her hard-serving partner, who will turn 21 next week.When Mensik first asked Muchova to play, she told him to improve his ranking. When the U.S. Open mixed doubles tournament was revamped last year, the ability to directly qualify was based on the combined singles rankings of the two players.Mensik then did his part by reaching the semifinals of the French Open.“I put a little pressure on him, but in a fun way. It worked,” Muchova said. “I’m happy we managed and we got in, that we are here now.”The final was the only match of the tournament that resembled a regular match, with standard sets to six games and a tiebreaker at 6-all. Through the first three rounds, sets were to four games, with a tiebreaker at 4-all.Bencic and Cobolli knocked Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz out of the tournament Tuesday in the quarterfinals.Then they dropped a set for the first time in the tournament in the semis, but began to dominate midway through the second set, winning the final 11 points to force the match tiebreaker. But they couldn’t win their second one in the final.“This year is already the second final. I never expected in my life to play a Grand Slam,” said Cobolli, this year’s French Open runner-up. “This is mixed but still something that you never forget.”It was the second year of the new format in mixed doubles, with the event shortened and moved to the week before the singles main draw begins, with the U.S. Tennis Association hoping that would get top singles players to compete.Plenty of top names did compete but much of the star power, including Williams and Alcaraz, went out early. Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic lost their opening match, as did Alex Eala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz.That could explain a good number of empty seats in Ashe, particularly after both semifinals went the distance and pushed the start of the final back toward nearly 11 p.m. EDT.None of the teams featuring doubles specialists survived to the final four, leaving an opening for some players still seeking Grand Slam glory such as Rublev, who has fallen 10 times in major quarterfinals.Svitolina and Monfils, who have both reached the U.S. Open singles semifinals, accepted a wild card to team up for the first time. Married since 2021, they were trying to win a championship in the final appearance in a Grand Slam tournament for Monfils, who will turn 40 on Sept. 1, before he retires.They pulled out a back-and-forth tiebreaker in the first set in which they blew a 4-0 lead, then erased two set points. They went ahead 8-7 when Bencic tried to hit a cross-court backhand but nailed Cobolli, who had strayed into the middle. Cobolli then double-faulted to lose the set.Bencic and Cobolli recovered, but then had a poor start to the final after a long break between matches. The Czechs pounced quickly, then finished well late.Their biggest challenge may have been the outfit selection. Mensik apparently wasn’t familiar with the word maroon.Now he knows and loves it.“My favorite color right now is pink and maroon, that’s for sure,” he said.___See AP’s full tennis coverage here'Big Regret': Roger Federer Names The U.S. Open Loss That Haunts HimTennis great Roger Federer has revealed that he’s haunted by his shock defeat in the 2009 U.S. Open men’s final.Federer — in an interview clip shared by ESPN’s Spanish-language tennis page on Tuesday — reflected on Argentina’s Juan Martín del Potro beating him in a match that lasted over four hours.Read more:Anna Wintour Names The Next Possible Fashion Star Of Women's TennisStyle icon Anna Wintour named a possible heir apparent to Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka as tennis’ reigning fashion queen. Read more below.Former U.S. Open Champ Gets Last-Minute Wild Card After Fan OutcryNEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Swiss Stan Wawrinka has been handed a wild card entry to the U.S. Open men’s singles draw, organizers said on Wednesday, after several days of outcry from fans over his exclusion.The 2016 champion was left off the initial list of wild card entries in his farewell season, reigniting fierce debate over which players get the nod — and which are left out — in the wild card process at the majors.Wawrinka posted an emotional farewell to the tournament on social media on Tuesday, seemingly closing the door on any hope of his competing in the year’s final major after participating in the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year on wild cards.“I’m incredibly excited to accept the wild card for the 2026 US Open and look forward to competing in front of the fans in New York once again,” he said in a statement.The 41-year-old former world number three won at Roland Garros in 2015 and the Australian Open in 2014.(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ed Osmond)Alcaraz Ready To Reignite Season In New York After Nearly Five-Month AbsenceBENGALURU, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Carlos Alcaraz returns from a nearly five-month injury layoff for his U.S. Open title defense with little match practice but no shortage of expectation as the flamboyant Spaniard bids to win a third title in New York.Few modern players have lit up the sport quite like Alcaraz, whose blend of flair and fearless shot-making helped him become the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam when he won his seventh major crown at this year’s Australian Open.Alcaraz turned 23 a few months after his Melbourne triumph, but the momentum from that historic achievement was abruptly halted when he pulled out injured midway through the Barcelona Open in April and his absence has been keenly felt since.Having missed most of the clay season, the French Open, Wimbledon and North American hardcourt tournaments, Alcaraz returns to a sport that has been waiting for one of its top attractions, noted renowned coach Patrick Mouratoglou.“His return will be great for tennis,” Mouratoglou said on social media, acknowledging the unique excitement that Alcaraz generates at tournaments around the world.“It will bring back something that was missing at both Wimbledon and Roland Garros.”DOMINANT TRIUMPH LAST YEARIf there is one venue that can ease doubts about Alcaraz’s readiness, it may be Flushing Meadows, where he won the title as a teenager in 2022 to become world number one for the first time and returned to the summit after a dominant triumph last year.Alcaraz’s 24-3 win-loss record in New York underlines an affinity with the event and offers further reason for optimism and former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick said the rusty world number three appeared willing to embrace the uncertainty.“We don’t know what we’re going to get,” Roddick said on his podcast ‘Served’. “A lot of the time he pulls shots out of nowhere. For him to play this, I have to think the risk of further injury is next to nothing.“It seems like he’s happy to accept that ‘hey, listen, maybe my legs will be tired. Maybe I haven’t played any match reps. I might lose first or second round ... but I’m going to go’.“This is great, it’s such a win for tennis.”Videos of Alcaraz’s training sessions have hinted at a man eager to make up for lost time, even if the true measure of his readiness will come under the lights in New York. (Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)Serena, Venus Williams To Team Up Once Again At The U.S. OpenNEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Serena and Venus Williams have received a women’s doubles wildcard entry at the U.S. Open, tournament organizers said on Wednesday.The sisters have played together in the U.S. Open doubles nine times, most recently in 2022, when Serena made an emotional farewell to the sport. Serena exited the mixed doubles tournament with partner Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.Serena, a 23-times Grand Slam champion, returned to the court for the first time in nearly four years at the Queen’s Club Championships in London in June.The 44-year-old showed glimpses of her old form in her two mixed doubles matches on Tuesday, firing down a 120 mph (193.1 kph) ace to gasps from the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.The 46-year-old Venus reached the women’s doubles quarter-finals last year with Canadian partner Leylah Fernandez.The Williams sisters played together this month in Cincinnati, where they lost in their opening match. They were once among the most formidable doubles pairs on the circuit, winning the U.S. Open title in 2009 and 2019.The women’s doubles first round begins at Flushing Meadows on September 3.(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Ed Osmond)See All Updates