US Open, Pegula joins Sabalenka in semifinal; the Next Gen return to Italy

The women’s draw at the US Open has its semifinalists. On September 9 Jessica Pegula joined Aryna Sabalenka among the top four, after her match against Emma Navarro. The day’s schedule is the tournament’s official one, reported by Sky Sport; the results are recorded by LiveTennis and by SuperTennis.

In the men’s draw, the American night session of the tenth day produced a comeback: Frances Tiafoe won after falling behind. The same session had scheduled the quarterfinal between Ben Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz and that of the number 1 seed, Alexander Zverev, against the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.

What we know and what is still scheduled

It is worth making explicit a distinction that in tennis, with New York’s time zone, is often lost: some of the day’s information is results, other information is schedule. Pegula’s advance to the semifinal and Tiafoe’s comeback are results; Zverev’s appearance on court and the match between Shelton and Alcaraz, in the available material, appear as scheduled matches. This newspaper does not publish scores it does not find in its sources, and in today’s dossier the scores are not there.

The name carrying the most weight in the women’s draw remains that of Sabalenka, already qualified when Pegula joined her. In the men’s doubles, the Italian pair formed by Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori were expected in the round of 16 against Krajicek and Mektic.

December in Reggio Calabria

The day’s other piece of news concerns the calendar and geography of junior tennis. The Next Gen ATP Finals, the tournament bringing together the tour’s best under-20 players, will be held in December 2026 in Reggio Calabria, at the PalaCalafiore. The announcement was made on September 9 and relayed by the ANSA agency, as reported by the Musicletter roundup. The news currently comes from a single source (ANSA via the cited roundup); no independent confirmation available in the material gathered.

The president of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation, Angelo Binaghi, called the choice a sign of trust. In the same source his statement appears truncated, and the recipient of that trust cannot be reconstructed: this newspaper therefore reports only the verifiable part. The same city will also host the under-20 world tennis finals: two junior events concentrated in a single venue, in a facility that until now had not featured on the maps of the tour’s major events.

Awarding an international tournament to a city means committing an arena, a hotel network and television coverage for a week in December, when the main season is over. It is the period in which tennis tries to build its future audience by showcasing players the main tour has not yet crowned.

What we don’t know

We do not know the exact dates of the Next Gen ATP Finals nor the tournament format for the 2026 edition, and the available material does not indicate how many players will take part. We do not know who will face Pegula in the semifinal, because the other half of the draw does not appear to have been completed in the sources consulted.

Today’s certain fact at Flushing Meadows is the partial composition of the women’s penultimate round: Sabalenka and Pegula are through.