Today, August 26, the 144th edition of the US Open Tennis Championship begins. For the 10th consecutive year, the final Grand Slam of the season will be broadcast by ESPN, which holds exclusive rights to broadcast the event in New York after signing an 11-year deal worth $825 million. In Bulgaria, Flushing Meadows will be broadcast on Eurosport channels. The current women's and men's champions are Coco Goff and Novak Djokovic, respectively, and the competition will continue until September 8.
Djokovic, who won the only title missing from his collection earlier this month - the Olympic title at the Paris Games after beating Carlos Alcaraz in two tiebreak sets in the final - begins his defence of the trophy against qualifier Radu Albot of Moldova. Last year he dealt with Daniil Medvedev after a 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 success. This is the Joker's last Slam title for the time being - the fourth from the US Open and the 24th overall in his showcase. This year, however, the Serbian, who is second in the scheme, has no triumph in the highest category, reaching the final only at Wimbledon, where Alcaraz defeated him. Now, Nole enters in high spirits after the gold medal for the Olympic singles in Paris and will play without the added pressure of trying to lift the trophy in the States. The last time Djokovic did not win a Grand Slam title was in 2017. If successful in the first round, he faces one of his compatriots Laszlo Jere or Jan-Lennard Struff, and in the third potential opponent is the surprise winner of the Montreal Masters Alexey Popirin of Australia.
Ranked number 1 is world leader Yannick Siner. The Italian warmed up in a great way for the tournament in New York, after becoming the champion in Cincinnati, where he defeated Francis Tiafoe. However, the name of Sinner, who this year won the title of the Australian Open and played in the semifinals of Roland Garros, became involved in a doping scandal. It emerged that the South Tyrol-born tennis player had tested positive twice at the Indian Wells tournament in March for the banned substance clostebol, a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass. Syner, however, escaped punishment after the International Tennis Integrity Agency upheld his appeal and accepted that the substance entered his body unintentionally. Understandably, quite a few colleagues of the world number 1 expressed displeasure with the Agency's decision, including Nick Kyrgios and Denis Shapovalov. Sinner begins his campaign at Flushing Meadows with a match against home representative Mackenzie MacDonald, and the Italian could meet Alcaraz in the semifinals.
The 21-year-old 2022 champion faces Australian qualifier Li Tu, who is ranked 189th in the world, in the first round. He could face Shapovalov in the next phase, and one of Britain's top tennis players, Jack Draper, ranked number 25, is a potential opponent in the third round. 2020 finalist Alexander Zverev, seeded fourth, kicks off with a match against compatriot and "lucky loser" Maximilian Marterer. Medvedev, last year's runner-up and 2021 winner, opens against Serbia's Dusan Lajovic. Andrey Rublev from Russia has Tiago Seibot Wilde from Brazil as his opponent, and Hubert Hurkach (7) and Kasper Ruud (8) start with qualifiers - respectively Timofey Skatov and Yunchaokut' Bu. Among the interesting men's first-round matchups are Lorenzo Sonego vs. Tommy Paul, Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Tanasi Kokkinakis, Jakub Mensik vs. Felix Auger-Aliassim, Dan Evans vs. Karen Khachanov, Holger Rune vs. Brandon Nakashima, Marton Fuchovic vs. Jiri Lehechka, and Ben Shelton vs. Dominic Thiem, 2020 champion. Four-time US Open champion Rafael Nadal has withdrawn to focus on the Laver Cup team competition next month.
Our only representative in the men's main draw for another year is the best Bulgarian tennis player, Grigor Dimitrov. Grigor is seeded No. 9 and starts against qualifier Kyrian Jacquet of France in his 14th straight appearance on the main draw in New York. For Jacquet, this will be his debut in the main draw of a Slam tournament. Grigor's match on Monday is the third in the program on Court number 5 and will start no earlier than 21:30 Bulgarian time. Dimitrov's best finish is the 2019 semifinals when he lost to Medvedev in three sets. The 33-year-old from Haskovo has also reached the round of 16 twice - in 2014 and 2016, and last year he was eliminated in the third round by Zverev. With an opening-round win over the unbeaten 209th-ranked Jacque, the Bulgarian will play either Rinki Hijikata or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, with the first seed he could face being the 21st-ranked Sebastian Baez of Argentina in the third round.
Reigning women's trophy winner Goff, who upended Aryna Sabalenka in last year's final, will look to delight the home crowd again. The American, third in the schedule, starts with a match against Varvara Gracheva from France, and in the third round potentially awaits the 27th-seeded Elina Svitolina. World No. 1 Iga Shviontek, the champion from 2022, starts against "lucky loser" Kamila Rakhimova and could meet first-time seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (25) in the third round. 2023 finalist Sabalenka warmed up nicely for the tournament, winning the race in Cincinnati. The Belarus representative will start against qualifier Priscilla Hunn at Flushing Meadows. The same applies to former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, whose opponent is Destoni Ayava, who defeated Gergana Topalova earlier in the qualifiers. Fifth seed Jasmine Paolini - a Roland Garros and All England Club finalist this season - has a treacherous obstacle in front of her to begin with in former trophy winner Bianca Andreescu.
Jessica Pegula, one of the home favourites, is sixth in the standings and is in very strong form after triumphing in Toronto and then playing in the final in Cincinnati. The 30-year-old American will face her compatriot Shelby Rogers. The Olympic champion Qinyuan Zheng from China is seventh seed and plays with another representative of the hosts - Amanda Anisimova, who participates with a "wild card". The champion from Wimbledon Barbora Krejcikova has as a rival qualifier at the start in the person of Marina Bassols from Spain. Other intriguing first-round matchups include Daniel Collins vs. Caroline Dolehide, Emma Radukanu vs. Sofia Kenin, Jelena Ostapenko vs. Naomi Osaka, Anastasia Potapova vs. Leila Fernandez, Yulia Putintseva vs. Linda Noskova, Yafan Wan vs. Maria Sakari, and Emma Navarro vs. Anna Blinkova. 2022 finalist Ons Jabert of Tunisia has withdrawn from the tournament due to injury.
Our first racket Victoria Tomova will also participate in the women's main draw. The Bulgarian, ranked 50th in the world, begins her fourth appearance in the main draw of the US Open on Monday against a well-known opponent - Ekaterina Alexandrova. The match between the two on Court number 6 is the last of the arena program and is expected to start no earlier than 23:30 our time. The 30th-seeded Russian has a 3-2 head-to-head record but lost to Vicky in the first round of this year's Roland Garros 3-6, 6-7 (5). Before that, the Russian tennis player lost to the Bulgarian in the US Open qualifiers in 2016. Tomova is in the bottom half of the schedule, and with another success over Alexandrova, she will play in the second round of the competition for the first time in her career against one of Magda Linet or Iva Jovic. A potential opponent of our girl in the third round is last year's finalist and second-placed Sabalenka.
The total prize pool of the 2024 US Open is $75 million, or 15% more than last year's edition. The men's and women's singles winners will walk away with checks for $3,600,000 and the runners-up with $1,800,000 each. $100,000 is awarded to each tennis player who qualified for the main draw. | BGNES
