US OPEN, DOWN TO THE WIRE 

Published: 11/09/2026 | By: Alex Courbat

Flushing Meadows has a habit of looking half-asleep for a fortnight before suddenly deciding it wants to be the main character. This year's US Open has been exactly that. Five-set wars, proper upsets, comebacks that should've been dead and buried, and one match that didn't finish until 3:33am. Fitting for the city that never sleeps.  

Now we’re down to the final weekend, and somehow the tournament has managed to cram enough history into two weeks to make most Grand Slams look like they’ve been on autopilot. 

The Women’s Draw 

Start with the women, because this doesn't happen very often. For the first time at the US Open since 1975, all four top seeds have made the semi-finals. Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff. One through four. No bracket-busting chaos. No superstar falling through the trapdoor in week one. Just the four names you'd have circled before a ball was hit. It's almost suspicious. 

Sabalenka meets Pegula, while Rybakina takes on Gauff, with both semi-finals landing on Thursday. And whichever two make Saturday's final will arrive carrying a storyline of their own. 

Sabalenka is going for three straight US Open titles, a feat only Serena Williams has managed in the Open Era. That's the headline, obviously, but her route here hasn't exactly been a victory lap. She's had early exits at Cincinnati and Wimbledon, plus a quarter-final defeat at Roland Garros. Not quite the sort of season you'd script for the defending champion, then. 

But she's still here. And, frankly, that's usually when Sabalenka gets interesting. 

Rybakina, meanwhile, has already made history before the final four have even been decided. Her win over Zheng Qinwen secured the Kazakh her first world No.1 ranking, ending Sabalenka's 99-week spell at the top. Now she's got Gauff standing between her and a first US Open final. 

Gauff needs no introduction. She won this place in 2023, turning a teenage breakout into one of the biggest nights of her career, and she's back in the semi-finals for the first time since. Her route wasn't exactly smooth either, coming from a set down against Mirra Andreeva and saving two match points in the second-set tie-break. Very Gauff, really. 

Then there’s Pegula. Thirty-two, battle-tested, ridiculously consistent and still hunting the one thing missing from the trophy cabinet: a Grand Slam singles title. She’s been around the sharp end of this tournament enough times to know the drill. This time, though, she’s got Sabalenka in the way. 

So, no obvious filler. No lucky loser story making up the numbers. Four top seeds, two semi-finals and a whole lot of unfinished business. 

Saturday could be one for the history books. 

The Men’s Draw 

The men's draw, meanwhile, has been doing whatever the hell it wants. 

Carlos Alcaraz arrived as defending champion but with also a fair share of questions after finally returning from a wrist injury that had kept him out for months. Then Ben Shelton turned up, played like he had somewhere to be and sent him home. Five sets. 3:33am finish. Half-empty Arthur Ashe. Proper New York stuff. 

Shelton had never beaten a top-three player before. Alcaraz had won 18 straight matches at Grand Slams. By the end of the night, neither stat mattered anymore. And now we've got something American tennis hasn't had in a very long time: an all-American men's semi-final. Shelton against Frances Tiafoe.

One of them is guaranteed a place in Sunday's final, meaning an American man will play for the US Open title – one that evades Team USA since Andy Roddick won it in 2003. It's been a long, long wait. More than two decades of watching other countries take turns with the biggest trophies while American tennis kept promising the next one was coming. Now it's actually here. Whether one of them can make it happen is to be seen.  

 Because, on the other side of the draw sits Alexander Zverev. The No.1 seed after Jannik Sinner withdrew with a knee injury. The German hasn't exactly glided into the final four, either. He opened with back-to-back five-setters before settling into the tournament, eventually brushing aside Botic van de Zandschulp in the quarters. 

He's now into his first Grand Slam semi-final as a top seed, and he's looking like a player who's finally figured out how to turn all that obvious talent into something a little more ruthless. He's also already got a major this year after winning Roland Garros in June. Does that make him the favourite? We shall see.

Standing opposite him is Karen Khachanov, quietly going about his business while everyone else grabs the headlines. He beat Félix Auger-Aliassime on the way through before reaching the semis after Alexander Blockx retired while trailing in their quarter-final. It's his first US Open semi-final since 2022, and now he's got Zverev again, the man who beat him in the Tokyo Olympics final. Not exactly a bad little subplot. 

The Weekend Ahead 

So that's where New York has landed. Thursday gives us four of the world's best women fighting for two spots in Saturday's final. One is chasing a hat-trick. One has just become world No.1. One wants to recreate the run that changed her career. And one is still looking for the major that's somehow always stayed just out of reach. 

Then Sunday belongs to the men. Zverev is hunting a second major of the season. Shelton has just taken out the defending champion at 3:33 in the morning. Tiafoe has already pulled off one comeback for the ages. 

And somewhere in all of that, New York is doing what New York does best: Making a racket. 

Two weeks ago, there were 128 players in the men's draw and 128 in the women's. Now there are eight. Four matches left. Two trophies. 

No one really knows who's taking them home. Which, let's be honest, is exactly how a US Open should feel.