Us Open kicks off without Sinner: Zverev top seed, Alcaraz returns

The main draw of the 2026 Us Open begins today, Sunday, August 30, on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows, in New York, and concludes Sunday, September 13. The draw was held on Thursday, August 27 at noon, New York time, and produced a tournament with a rewritten hierarchy: Jannik Sinner, Atp world number 1, withdrew due to a knee injury, as reported by Corriere dello Sport.

The immediate consequence is that the top seed is now Alexander Zverev, who faces Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego in the first round. The second seed is Carlos Alcaraz, who returns after roughly four months out due to a right wrist injury and opens against Russia’s Roman Safiullin: a comeback in the longest tournament on the calendar, without recent matches under his belt. Novak Djokovic, fourth seed, opens against American Brandon Nakashima.

The Italian picture. The men’s main draw features seven Italians, including Flavio Cobolli and Lorenzo Musetti; there are two in the women’s draw, as reported by Today and OA Sport, both based on the official draw. The asymmetric figure — seven against two — describes a depth of representation that is broad in the men’s field and is not in the women’s.

The absence of the world number one does not simply redistribute a title: it changes the structure of the draw.

What changes with the number one’s absence. In a straight-knockout tournament spanning fifteen days, the number 1 seed is not merely the favorite: it is the pivot around which the draw’s symmetry is built. Removing it means that every player ranked between second and eighth seed finds themselves on a different path than they would otherwise have had, and the advantage is distributed unevenly depending on which half one ends up in. For the seven Italians in the competition, Cobolli and Musetti included, this means that part of the outcome was already decided on August 27, when the names were placed into the two halves: in cases like this, the draw carries as much weight as physical condition.

The comeback factor. Alcaraz arrives after a long absence due to a right wrist problem, that is, the limb that governs his main stroke. On hard courts, a fast and punishing surface, the variable at stake is not the quality of play but the ability to hold up over repeated five-set matches on alternating days. The first round against Safiullin will reveal little; the third and fourth rounds will reveal almost everything.

What we do not know. We do not know the recovery timeline indicated for the number one’s knee injury: the record shows the withdrawal, not a prognosis, and this newspaper does not publish health information about identifiable individuals beyond what has been officially communicated. We do not know the complete list of the seven Italians in the draw nor the pairings beyond those mentioned. We do not have the detailed schedule for the opening days nor the court assignments. Finally, we do not know whether any format changes are planned compared with previous editions.

The first evidence arrives already in these hours: Zverev-Sonego opens the Italian account of the tournament, and from there the tally of the seven men’s entries will be updated round by round until September 13.