US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Nishesh Basavareddy vs 
Tristan Schoolkate
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Nishesh Basavareddy to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
A qualifier-versus-qualifier match, which means both men arrive with three wins and tired legs. Basavareddy is 21, ranked 163rd, 9–6 on the season with a 27–20 hard record; Schoolkate is 25, 180th, 6–9 and 24–32. They met in Winston-Salem qualifying last year and Basavareddy won it 6-4 6-3. The American is the better player on current form and has the home crowd. Basavareddy in four.
The case for Nishesh Basavareddy
70% to winHe has already beaten Schoolkate on a hard court, 6-4 6-3, and he is the better of the two this season (9–6 against 6–9) with a winning career hard-court record where his opponent has a losing one. Playing at home in New York does not hurt.
The case for Tristan Schoolkate
30% to winSchoolkate reached the second round here in 2025, which is one round further than Basavareddy has ever gone, and he is four years older in a match where both men will be into a fourth or fifth match of the week. Their one meeting was a qualifying match at a 250 — thin evidence.
Both cases written 2026-08-29, 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.
Tale of the tape
Nishesh BasavareddyTristan SchoolkatePlayer 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 2026-08-28.
The briefing
Storylines
- Both men came through qualifying: whoever wins will have played four matches in six days.
- Basavareddy won their only previous meeting, in Winston-Salem qualifying in 2025, 6-4 6-3.
- Schoolkate's second round here in 2025 is the deeper US Open run of the two.
Head to head
One meeting: Winston-Salem qualifying, 2025, Basavareddy 6-4 6-3 on hard.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-28.
Watch: Opening-round coverage runs across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, including the whip-around channel that only exists in the early rounds. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
Court & schedule: Not yet assigned. Days one and two of the main draw are on the board; this match falls in the back half of the first round, and the US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before. (Official US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-28)
Weather: The forecast cooled since the draw: Sunday opens partly sunny near 80°F with a slight shower chance after 2 p.m., and a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms arrives with Sunday night. Monday is similar at 81°F, and the storm odds climb through Tuesday and Wednesday. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs; the field courts wait. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-28)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
The Round of 128 is the widest the net ever gets: 64 matches a draw, spread across three days, every seed in action and every qualifier playing the biggest match of the year. This half of the bracket filled in late — qualifying ran a day long after rain pushed the last round to Friday, so these names were still blank slots on draw night. First-round losers leave with $140,000. The winner draws Comesaña or Cobolli in the Round of 64.
