Preview / Schedule US Open 2024 Day One - Monday 26 August as champions Gauff and Djokovic return

The US Open schedule is set for Day One (Monday 26 August). It has many great matches in store for us, including defending champions Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff starting their campaigns. Our preview sums up the action.

The 2024 US Open is here, and with it, the Grand Slam series of this year will conclude. It’s the final time in 2024 that players will be able to pursue their goal of winning a Grand Slam trophy, so let’s take a look at which of these sports gladiators will battle it out on the first day of this final Grand Slam of the year

Arthur Ashe was once a really great tennis player, and on the court that bears his name, we’ll get underway at 12:00 local time. The main court will feature four matches as it always does in these opening rounds, and the first one is really great.

A former champion will be on the courts against a possible future champion. It’s Ben Shelton against Dominic Thiem, a rather fascinating matchup between youth and veteran experience.

It’s not their first time facing each other because they’ve played two matches so far. Thiem won the first one at the Estoril Open last year, but Shelton would replay the favor at the US Open later that year. It was a rather interesting first set as Thiem led, but Shelton won it in a tiebreak. The Austrian was dealing with some stomach issues that were getting worse and worse, and after one game in the second set, he elected to retire from the match.

Hopefully, this one goes a lot better because it’s the final time he’ll play at the US Open. As this is the only Grand Slam he's ever won, it’s going to be quite emotional, but what a better way to say goodbye to the event than by playing a really talented young player in Ben Shelton?

The next match features last year’s defending champion Coco Gauff, who will begin her title defence against a pretty tricky opponent in Varvara Gracheva. The French player has a skillset that can trouble most players. She tends to serve pretty well for the most part and generally doesn’t miss from the baseline too often. She’s not as consistent with it, so she’s very beatable, but Gauff hasn’t been exactly that great herself.

It’s widely expected that she will find a really solid level here because it’s her home slam, and she’s played really well here. She might not play well at the moment, but losing in the first round against Gracheva would be very shocking. That’s unlikely to happen, no matter what her form is.

The 3rd match on Ashe will be between Sloane Stephens and Clara Burel. It’s a pretty interesting match because Stephens is a former champion of this event who hasn’t been playing that great in recent years. She’s still expected to do really well here because she’s the better player and playing at her home slam. Burel can play well at times, but winning this one would be pretty surprising, and I don’t think the majority of fans will be rooting for that outcome anyway.

The final match on Ashe of the first day of tennis will be between Novak Djokovic and Radu Albot. It’s by far the most interesting match on Ashe because it’s Djokovic playing. The Serbian last played at the Olympics, and he won that event, which was an amazing achievement. Nobody saw it coming because most people assumed that Carlos Alcaraz would win.

They did end up playing in the final, but Djokovic won that match. That’s why people changed their minds and declared Djokovic the favourite for the US Open. We haven’t seen that Djokovic before, but after seeing that he’s still capable of that level, people changed their minds.

The first match, though, has the potential to be complicated. He hasn’t played in a while, and he’s coming off of an emotional experience; there might be a lack of motivation, as absurd as that sounds, and he’s playing a super aggressive player who has the quality to make this match interesting. Djokovic is obviously a huge favorite and likely will win this one comfortably, but there is a chance for complications. We do have to note that Djokovic is pursuing a 25th Grand Slam trophy, which has never been done before, so the stories about not being motivated enough do seem pretty laughable. When history is on the line, then he’ll find a way to motivate himself. As the Olympics showed, he always does.

The second biggest court in New York is the Louis Armstrong stadium, and that one will feature five matches. There will also be plenty of star power because the top favorite on the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka, is playing.

This is the first match of the day, and it’s a great one because Olympic champion Zheng is taking on Anisimova, who recently had a superb run in Toronto. There promises to be a lot of great rallies in this one, so the crowd will certainly be up for it. Perhaps the WTA match of the day.

The next one is between US hopeful Taylor Fritz and Carabelli, who is a pretty solid player but not on hard courts. This promises to be a really swift affair for Fritz, who is the far better player, and he’ll give his fans and the American crowd plenty of great moments to cheer for.

Last year’s semi-finalist will be back on the court to take on a tricky player in Siniakova. Keys has been amazing at the US Open over the years, though she never quite went all the way. This year is a new chance for her, and she’ll certainly give it her all. She needs to because Siniakova will beat you if you don’t play your best.

Tiafoe will kickstart his US Open campaign with a matchup against fellow American Kovacevic. He is expected to win comfortably, but Kovacevic has a good skillset and can make it interesting. The crowd loves Tiafoe in New York, and he always delivers a show in the Big Apple, so this is one to watch.

Especially too given his recent terrific form which saw him thrill in Cincinnati pushing Sinner all the way.

Sabalenka just won the Cincinnati Open and is arriving in New York as her top favourite. Her level has been trending into the spectacular recently, and the first matchup shouldn’t be a huge problem. Hon came through the qualifiers and is in match rhythm, but her level is far from enough to really challenge a player who might not even drop a single set in New York.

There are plenty of great matches on the other courts, and we’ll review some of the most interesting ones with names such as Badosa and Reilly Opelka.

After months of struggling, Paula Badosa has picked up form recently with a couple of good results and a trophy in Washington. She’s heavily favored in this one, but it’s mostly interesting to see whether she can keep up the good play in light of her chronic back injury.

Schwartzman is retiring in a couple of months, so this is the final US Open. It’s been a solid event for him, as he's made the quarter-final here in the past. He’s facing a crowd favourite who has been in tennis even longer than him. It’s just a great match with all the right vibes.

After two years away from tennis, Reilly Opelka is back and will play at his first US Open since 2021. The opponent is the a player he beat at the 2021 US Open, Lorenzo Musetti. It’s an interesting one; Musetti will be favoured, but Opelka might surprise. Overall, it's a really good first-round matchup.

Matteo Berrettini has been to the US Open semi-finals in the past, and he’s going to be back this year to try and have a good run. He hasn’t played that much tennis lately, but when he did play, he was really good. Overall, it’s a pretty easy matchup because Ramos mostly plays on clay, and even there, he’s not the best anymore.

Overall, this first day of tennis has a packed schedule with many great players playing. There should not be a shortage of great matches, and we’ll also have some legends out there like Novak Djokovic. It can’t get much better than this.

Arthur Ashe Stadium (starting at 12:00 ET)

Ben Shelton (13) vs. Dominic Thiem

Coco Gauff (3) vs. Varvara Gracheva

Arthur Ashe Stadium (starting at 19:00 ET)

Sloane Stephens vs. Clara Burel

Novak Djokovic (2) vs. Radu Albot

Louis Armstrong Stadium (starting at 11:00 ET)

Zheng Qinwen (7) vs. Amanda Anisimova

Taylor Fritz (12) vs. Camilo Ugo Carabelli

Madison Keys (14) vs. Katerina Siniakova

Louis Armstrong Stadium (starting at 19:00 ET)

Frances Tiafoe (20) vs. Aleksandar Kovacevic

Aryna Sabalenka (2) vs. Priscilla Hon

Grandstand (starting at 11:00 ET)

Alexander Zverev (4) vs. Emil Ruusuvuori

Paula Badosa (26) vs. Viktorija Golubic

Gael Monfils vs. Diego Schwartzman

Victoria Azarenka (20) vs. Yuliia Starodubtseva (not before 18:00 ET)

Dominic Stricker v Francisco Comesana

Tatjana Maria v Sofana Sierra

Veronika Kudermetova v Elise Mertens (33)

Sebastian Baez (21) v Luciano Darderi

Jaqueline Cristian v Daria Kasatkina (12)

Albert Ramos-Vinolas v Matteo Berrettini

Reilly Opelka v Lorenzo Musetti (18)

Emma Navarro (13) v Anna Blinkova

Erika Andreeva v Yue Yuan

Greet Minnen v Magdalena Frech

Yoshihito Nishioka v Miomir Kecmanovic

Arthur Cazaux v Pablo Carreno Busta

Jan Choinski v Roberto Carballes Baena

Alexandre Muller v Adam Walton

Chloe Paquet v Harriet Dart

Ugo Humbert (17) v Thiago Monteiro

Oceane Dorin v Angelina Kalinina

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard v Tomas Martin Etcheverry

Ana Bogdan v Arantxa Rus

Juncheng Shang v Alexander Bublik (27)

Peyton Stearns v Lesia Tsurenko

Christopher Eubanks v Arthur Rinderknech

Lulu Sun v Lucia Bronzetti

Donna Vekic (24) v Kimberly Birrell

Alexei Papyri (28) v Soonwoo Kwon

Francisco Cerundolo (29) v Sebastian Ofner

McCartney Kessler v Marta Kostyuk (19)

Diane Parry v Xiyu Wang

Pedro Martinez v Maks Kasnikowski

Magda Linette v Iva Jovic

Sumit Nagal v Tallon Griekspoor

Yafan Wang v Maria Sakkari (9)

Casper Ruud (8) v Yunchaokete Bu

Martina Trevisan v Taylor Townsend

Holger Rune (15) v Brandon Nakashima