The U.S. Open draw was revealed on Thursday afternoon and Carlos Alcaraz will have to do it the hard way if he wants to defend his title in New York City.
Alcaraz may be the world No. 1 and top seed, but the draw did not do him any favors. He could have to get past both Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev just to reach the final. Sinner, the No. 6 seed, landed in Alcaraz’s quarter; Medvedev, the No. 3 seed, also finds himself in the top half.
In addition to Sinner, the Alcaraz section includes Alexander Zverev, Cameron Norrie, Grigor Dimitrov, Tallon Griekspoor, Andy Murray, and Stan Wawrinka. Murray and Wawrinka are unseeded. The former could face Dimitrov in the second round and Zverev in the third; the latter opens against Yoshihito Nishioka and would then likely run into Sinner.
Medvedev’s quarter features Andrey Rublev, Hubert Hurkacz, Alex de Minaur, Matteo Berrettini, Gael Monfils, and Kei Nishikori.
The bottom half–where Novak Djokovic is the No. 2 seed–is much softer. Holger Rune, Casper Ruud, and Stefanos Tsitsipas are the other top-eight seeds and out of that group only Tsitsipas is in even halfway decent form. The Rune-Ruud section is especially wide open, so a huge opportunity awaits Americans Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul, Sebastian Korda, and Ben Shelton. As for Djokovic, he should waltz into the quarterfinals before meeting either Tsitsipas or Taylor Fritz.
Among the first-round matchups to watch are Rublev vs. Emil Ruusuvuori, Griekspoor vs. Arthur Fils, Zverev vs. Aleksandar Vukic, Berrettini vs. Ugo Humbert, Korda vs. Marton Fucsovics, Borna Coric vs. Sebastian Baez, Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Mackenzie McDonald, and Alexander Bublik vs. Dominic Thiem.
full draw on the U.S. Open website
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who ya got?
Hmmh!..once again Carlos draw is a joke!..and we could say this USO trophy is Novak’s already!..hahaha..
The same was case at wimby too he had very nasty draw with berretini, rune , medvedev n djokovic n we know who won. He actually played all.
Novak in Cincinnati has brutal draw and never had to play anyone bad till the final as all lost
But yes this draw seems tailor-made for Novak to win
Yes, it’s a nasty draw for Carlos, but how many times have we seen horrible draws melt away like snow in the sun, once play begins?
Sanju & M!..u both were right of coz!
When i first see the draw,i can’t help but laugh,i mean when Rafa still on tour,he always had the toughest draw compared to Novak,and then came Alcaraz & things happening exactly the same!..wth is this??coincidence or bad luck?i donno!🤦‍♀️