Preview / Schedule US Open 2024 Day Four - Thursday 29 August including Sinner, Alcaraz, Osaka-Muchova and Swiatek

Thursday, 29 August 2024 at 18:24

Day Four of the US Open is upon us (Thursday 29 August), and there are some great matchups featuring players like Jannik Sinner, Iga Świątek, Naomi Osaka, and Carlos Alcaraz who headline our preview.

The fourth day of the US Open will be played on August 29th, 2024, and there are a lot of great matches in store for us. As always, we’ll start from the biggest court, Arthur Ashe, where the best matches will be played.

Arthur Ashe Program

On day 4, it’s going to be Jannik Sinner who will get us underway at noon. The Italian will face rising American star Alex Michelsen, who has been playing career tennis recently.

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He made two finals in the past two months and is generally playing very confidently right now. The opening round was a thrashing win for him, and even in the only match against Jannik Sinner, Michelsen held up pretty well. It doesn’t seem like a troubling matchup for him, so it seems like this will be a really competitive match, which is ideal.

The crowd will be heavily backing Michelsen, similar to how they backed McDonald. Sinner didn’t have any issues that time around, even though he did drop a set, so overall it’s just a matchup that promises to be great and a wonderful way to kick off the day.

The second match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium will feature the women’s top seed. We’re going to go back to back in top seeds as Sinner is the top seed on the men’s side. Świątek will face Ena Shibahara, who made her name mostly in doubles tennis up until this point.

More recently, the Japanese player has opted to play singles tennis, and it’s worked out pretty well for her because she’s been playing really well. Winning the opening round gave her a chance to face Iga Świątek, and it could be an interesting match.

Obviously, Świątek is the overwhelming favorite to win the match, but that doesn’t mean that it will be easy. Her first-round match here in New York almost had her dropping a set, so this could be a really fascinating matchup. It’s pretty clear that both can play really well.

Naomi Osaka in action in her incredible US Open outfit.

The night session, as always, will feature two matches. Day four’s night session will feature Naomi Osaka stepping out on the courts first to face Karolina Muchová. It’s a fascinating matchup because when healthy, Muchová is one of the best players in the world. She proved it many times, including once by making the Roland Garros final and almost winning it against Iga Świątek.

Osaka has done tremendous things at the US Open in the past, winning twice, but she hasn’t exactly played at that level anymore. The first match was amazing, though, as she smashed Jelena Ostapenko without too many problems. It was a throwback performance from Osaka, and if she can produce that kind of level again, she’s certainly going to be favored to win this one.

The final match on Ashe on Day 4 will feature who many consider one of the favorites to win the event. It’s Carlos Alcaraz, and he’ll face Botic van de Zandschulp. It’s an interesting matchup, though it hasn’t really yielded any exciting matches in the past as the Spaniard bested him comfortably both times.

For the record, the Dutch player did play his best-ever Grand Slam in New York, so if he was going to make this matchup complicated, it was likely going to happen in New York. We’ll see what happens, but what is certain is that the stands will be packed.

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Louis Armstrong Stadium

As has been the case in the past few days, the second biggest stadium in the complex will see five matches instead of four. The first one of those will feature Sebastian Korda trying to extend his tremendous run in recent weeks.

The American won Washington and started really well here with a thrashing win, so he’d like to keep that going. Tomáš Macháč won’t make it easy as he’s a pretty fascinating player who, at his best, can play some amazing tennis. Overall, it promises to be a really nice introduction to the program.

After them, we’ll see 5th seed Jasmine Paolini taking on Karolína Plíšková. This is purely fascinating because it’s Paolini who is the seed and not Plíšková. The Italian overcame Bianca Andreescu in the previous round and will be heavily favored in this one as well.

Plíšková is far from her best, but we’ll see if she can turn in some vintage performance. She certainly needs it.

Jessica Pegula stars on Louis Armstrong.

The next match will feature Jessica Pegula taking on compatriot Sofia Kenin. This is fascinating because it will give us a chance to see whether Kenin can follow up that Raducanu win with another great performance. She hasn’t played well this year so far, so she certainly needs some good wins.

Pegula arrived in New York as a dark horse candidate to do some damage at the event, and this is certainly going to be a tough test for her. Everything we’ve seen from both players so far this year, and generally at the event, suggests Pegula should win this one comfortably, but you never know.

Kenin did win a major in the past, and she certainly can beat anybody on her best day.

The night session on this stadium will open with former champion Daniil Medvedev taking on Fábián Marozsán. What makes the Hungarian a problem to play against is his affinity to play a highly rewarding style. He attacks and doesn’t care much who is on the other side of the net. Medvedev has some moments where he can play pretty lazily.

That makes this matchup quite dangerous for him because if he’s not careful enough, the Russian could find himself seeing a lot of balls fly past him. He’s the overwhelming favorite, but this isn’t a matchup where he can take games off. He will need to be focused, and I think he will be because he certainly won’t like playing too deep into the night.

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The final match of the night session on the second biggest stadium will see Caroline Wozniacki play. The Danish player hasn’t played the night session at the US Open in a really long time, but it will be a nice throwback moment for her.

Her opponent is Renata Zarazúa, who is a player you don’t expect to be at this stage in a Grand Slam draw. She’s pretty solid, but it doesn’t seem likely she’ll be able to do much against Wozniacki. The Danish player is simply better.

Grandstand

Unlike the Louis Armstrong Stadium, the 3rd biggest court (Grandstand) will feature only four matches. The first of those is Yulia Putintseva facing Xinyu Wang, who is a solid player. Putintseva has been playing super solid tennis lately with wins over Coco Gauff and Linda Nosková, who recently won the super-tough Monterrey event. That will make her the nominal favorite in this one.

After that one, we’ll get Mirra Andreeva facing Ashlyn Krueger, which should be a really fascinating match. Krueger barely won in the opening round, but she’s a really tough player who will be heavily motivated to do well in this one. Andreeva is one of the best players in the world, and she’ll be heavily favored to win this one. After her sister crashed out, she’s the only Andreeva left in the draw, so she has to make the family proud.

The next match is between Alex de Minaur and Otto Virtanen. This is another really interesting one because Virtanen has been playing super solid tennis lately. De Minaur didn’t play a single match since Wimbledon before his opening round here because of a hip injury, but he seems healthy. He looked pretty good in that one, and a healthy de Minaur is a problem for anybody. We’ll see if he can keep it going.

The final match will be between Tommy Paul and Max Purcell. That’s a hard-hitting match with two very aggressive baseliners, so it should be a really interesting one. Paul has been amazing in recent weeks and will be heavily favored with the crowd behind him, but we’ll see if he can keep it going. Lots of Americans are hoping to see him do great things.

A couple of other interesting matches include Jordan Thompson facing Hubert Hurkacz. That should be a really fun one. Arthur Fils is taking on Gabriel Diallo, certainly an interesting one. There will also be a couple of Brits in action as Katie Boulter is playing. Dan Evans is playing after just finishing the longest match ever at the US Open. Jack Draper is also playing.

As you can see, it’s going to be a very interesting day of tennis with lots of great matches, and we’re going to have all of them here for you.