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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Rinky Hijikata — 7-5 4-6 6-3 7-5
 Felix Auger-Aliassime✓ | 7 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
 Rinky Hijikata | 5 | 6 | 3 | 5 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Two players who have known each other since they were about ten had never met on a match court, and it took the third seed three hours nineteen minutes and a fifty-five-minute rain delay to get through the first time. Auger-Aliassime trailed 3-5 in the opening set on the Grandstand and won four games in a row to take it. Hijikata levelled with a single break, from 0-40 down in the fifth game of the second, and served it out. The rain came between the second set and the third; Auger-Aliassime broke twice after it to lead by two sets to one, then broke for 5-4 in the fourth, failed to serve out the match, was broken back to 5-5, broke again in the eleventh game and served out to love. Seventeen aces against five, but also eleven double faults and fifty unforced errors — he needed thirteen break points to convert six. Both of his career Grand Slam semi-finals have come at this tournament. "We've known each other since we were like 10 years old, but this is the first time we've played one another," he said. "He caused me a lot of problems out there." Karen Khachanov, 2-2 with him lifetime, is next.
Felix Auger-AliassimeRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128, and the first appearance of a genuine title contender in this preview set: Auger-Aliassime returns to the site of last year's semi-final as the No. 3 seed in a draw whose top line lost Jannik Sinner to injury. The math of Slam runs starts in rounds like this — semi-finalists who repeat are the ones who spend no energy in week one. Hijikata, a 2023 second-weeker himself, is a sterner opener than most seeds get. The winner faces Burruchaga or Khachanov; play runs Sunday to Tuesday.
What we know now
Court: Grandstand
Match length: 3:19
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
What I said beforehand
The preview, frozen before the first serve. Clearly dated, never rewritten — that's the deal that makes the pick worth anything.
Auger-Aliassime, with respect paid to the scrap in front of him. The third seed is the highest-ranked man in the bottom half's upper quarter and he arrives off the best New York result of his career — a semi-final twelve months ago — with 32 wins on the season. Hijikata is precisely the kind of opponent who makes seeds sweat without usually beating them: a 4R run here in 2023, a 27–21 season, and a returner's game that feeds on tentative serving. Nothing about Auger-Aliassime's serving is tentative. First meeting; the Canadian's serve-plus-one against Hijikata's counterpunching is a stylistic mismatch at this pace, and five sets stretch it wider.
The case for Felix Auger-Aliassime
82% to winThird seed, reigning semi-finalist at this tournament, and the biggest serve in the section: Auger-Aliassime's floor in New York has become as high as anyone's outside the big two. His 215 career hard-court wins dwarf the field around him, and Sinner's absence makes his quarter of the draw the most open real estate he has ever been seeded into.
The case for Rinky Hijikata
18% to winHijikata has been to the second week here before — fourth round in 2023 — and his return game is the best single skill on either side of the net after the Canadian's serve. Seeds carrying semi-final points to defend carry scoreboard pressure from the first game; a 27-win season says the Australian is playing well enough to apply it if the first set gets tight.
Both cases written 2026-08-28, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Felix Auger-Aliassime to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A reigning semi-finalist and No. 3 seed with the section's biggest serve, in the most open quarter he has ever drawn.”
Locked 2026-08-28 02:55 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Felix Auger-AliassimeRinky HijikataPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Storylines
- Auger-Aliassime's semi-final here last year is the result that vaulted him back into the top five — he opens this campaign as the tournament's No. 3 seed.
- With Sinner withdrawn, Auger-Aliassime is the highest seed in his quarter — the draw has never been this open for him at a major.
- Hijikata's fourth round in 2023 came from qualifying-adjacent obscurity; he arrives this time as a direct entrant with a winning season.
Head to head
Never met — slightly surprising given both have lived on hard courts for years. Serve against return, in the purest form this section offers.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Grandstand, Monday 31 August. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before; this one is on the board. (Official US Open order of play, as of 2026-08-30)
Weather: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — was forecast at 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that could not be pushed back. The rain came in the morning and stopped before the final, which Ashe played with its roof open. It cleared from there: 15% overnight, 15% Monday, then dry and sunny. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.