The final major championship of the 2024 season the US Open starts on Aug. 26, with Coco Gauff and Novak Djokovic looking to defend their 2023 titles.
Djokovic and Qinwen Zheng come in having won gold medals at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, while Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova won the previous major of the season at Wimbledon.
Emma Raducanu will face fellow Grand Slam winner Sofia Kenin in the Briton’s first US Open appearance for two years. Raducanu memorably triumphed at the US Open as a teenage qualifier in 2021, becoming the first British woman in 44 years to win a major singles title.
She lost in the first round in 2022 and missed last year’s tournament after having wrist and ankle surgery. The 21-year-old faces a potentially tricky task against American Kenin, who won the Australian Open in 2020 and reached the French Open final in the same year.
Katie Boulter, the British women’s number one and 31st seed, will start against an as-yet unconfirmed qualifier, while Harriet Dart faces Chloe Paquet of France. In the men’s draw, Jack Draper faces China’s Zhang Zhizhen, with Carlos Alcaraz potentially waiting in the third round.
Dan Evans, the only other British man to gain direct entry into the main draw, faces 23rd seed Karen Khachanov of Russia. Jan Choinski reached the main draw for the first time with a hard-fought 6-0 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (12-10) win over American Maxime Cressy.
However, three other Britons – Sonay Kartal, Lily Miyazaki, and Billy Harris – all lost in the final round of qualifying. The US Open takes place from 26 August to 8 September.
Novak Djokovic begins his title defense – and hunt for a record 25th Grand Slam – against a qualifier, while women’s champion Coco Gauff opens against France’s Varvara Gracheva.
Elsewhere in the men’s draw, world number one Jannik Sinner, French Open and Wimbledon champion Alcaraz, and former US Open winner Daniil Medvedev are all in the same half.
Australian Open champion Sinner could meet last year’s runner-up Medvedev in the quarter-finals before facing Alcaraz for a place in the final.
Alcaraz and Sinner have been touted as the new rivalry to watch on the ATP Tour and played a five-hour quarter-final epic in New York in 2022 when Alcaraz went on to win the title.
Italy’s Sinner was cleared of any wrongdoing earlier this week after twice testing positive for a banned substance in March.
Olympic champion Djokovic also has a tricky draw, with recent Montreal Open champion Alexei Popyrin potentially waiting in the third round, followed by home hopes Frances Tiafoe or Ben Shelton.
[…] March and playing his first tournament since winning Olympic gold on clay in Paris three weeks ago, Djokovic didn’t bring his cleanest game to Arthur Ashe Stadium. The four-time champion threw in 10 double […]