Carlos Alcaraz's path to defending the US Open championship may face many obstacles due to a series of opponents with a power-oriented style of play in New York.
In the first tournament after 4 months of rest due to a wrist injury, the player ranked 3rd in the ATP rankings is in the same bracket as the 24-time Grand Slam champion record holder, Novak Djokovic.
This means that Alcaraz (seed number 2) and Djokovic (seed number 4) can face each other in the semi-finals of this hard court Grand Slam, if they both go deep.
Alcaraz and Djokovic have a head-to-head score of 5-5, in which Alcaraz won in their only encounter in 2026 in the Australian Open final.
Alcaraz came to New York as defending champion after winning his second US Open title in his career in 2025.
Djokovic has stepped up to the highest position here 4 times.
Before thinking about the clash with Djokovic, Alcaraz will have to focus on overcoming the extremely harsh 4th bracket. The 23-year-old Spanish player will face Roman Safiullin - who defeated him in 2 sets at Rolex Paris Masters 2023 - in his first singles match since April.
In addition, the 2 most recent ATP Masters 1000 champions, Ben Shelton ( Montreal champion) and Arthur Fils ( Cincinnati champion), are both potential opponents of Alcaraz in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, Djokovic will begin his journey to conquer the title with a confrontation with Mariano Navone.
The reward for the victory against the Argentine player will be an exciting second round confrontation with Matteo Berrettini or Stan Wawrinka - who played his last Grand Slam in his career right on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his coronation at Flushing Meadow (where he defeated Djokovic in the final).
The match between high-performing player Fils and former world No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas is one of the most notable matches in the first round in New York.
Meanwhile, Shelton (world No. 9) - the top hope for the US Open men's singles title of the host country since Andy Roddick in 2003 - will play against Tallon Griekspoor.
In the upper bracket of the draw results, No. 1 seed Alexander Zverev will face Italian player Lorenzo Sonego in the first round.
The German player, who just won his first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros this year and then reached the Wimbledon final, is currently holding a record of 18-2 at Grand Slam tournaments in 2026.
Zverev is expected to meet 6th seed Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals, although rising young star Rafael Jodar and US Open 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud are also potential opponents on the path to winning a spot in the Top 8 for the German player.
3rd seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and 5th seed Flavio Cobolli are also in the same bracket with Zverev at Flushing Meadows. Cobolli is expected to face the hopeful host and 2024 runner-up Taylor Fritz in the 4th round.
Fritz will start the tournament with a match against his 18-year-old compatriot Darwin Blanch.
Auger-Aliassime will meet Australian player Rinky Hijikata in the opening match. His bracket also includes 14th seed Learner Tien, 17th seed Jakub Mensik and Gael Monfils.
Similar to Wawrinka, Monfils will also play the last Grand Slam in his career before retiring.
