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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Nishesh Basavareddy vs Tristan Schoolkate — 7-6(4) 3-6 6-3 6-4
 Tristan Schoolkate✓ | 7 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
 Nishesh Basavareddy | 64 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
Final · Tuesday, September 1, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Two qualifiers hit forty-one aces and a hundred and thirteen winners at each other for three hours and three minutes, broke serve three times between them, and were separated by two points in two hundred and forty. Schoolkate won the match's only tiebreak, in the first set, gave the second back, and took the last two on a single break apiece. Basavareddy had won their one previous meeting in straight sets and every model had him ahead; the tournament's own projection gave him nearly three chances in four. Schoolkate had never qualified for a Grand Slam before this fortnight, and needed three match points to get past Liam Draxl in a final qualifying round that itself went to a deciding tiebreak — this is nonetheless his third consecutive US Open main draw, and New York keeps handing him the long ones. He finished it, in the Australian wire's description, celebrating like Lleyton Hewitt. Basavareddy, 21, from Carmel, Indiana and lately of Stanford, beat Taylor Fritz at Roland Garros in May. Flavio Cobolli is next.
Nishesh BasavareddyRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
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.
What we know now
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.
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.
My locked pick: Nishesh Basavareddy to advance ✗ WRONG
“A straight-sets win over the same opponent last year, better 2026 form, and a home crowd.”
Locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
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.
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.
Court & schedule: Court 11, Tuesday 1 September. 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.