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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Matteo Berrettini vs Stan Wawrinka — 7-6(4) 7-6(3) 6-0
 Matteo Berrettini✓ | 7 | 7 | 6 |
 Stan Wawrinka | 64 | 63 | 0 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Stan Wawrinka's last Grand Slam match ended 6-0, and the Grandstand did not want to let him go. He was in the draw at all because he had flown home to Switzerland the previous Monday, taken a call in the mountains and flown back when Patrick Kypson withdrew injured and freed a wild card; it was his eighteenth US Open, on the court where he beat Djokovic for the 2016 title. He broke to love when Berrettini served for the first set, then lost the tiebreak 7-4. He had seven break points in the second, three of them set points, and converted none of them; that tiebreak went 7-3. The third set opened with a sixteen-minute game and a video review Berrettini called on a possible double hit, which was ruled legal — the crowd booed him for it even as the two stood arm in arm laughing about the wait. Berrettini won every game after it, took 5 of 7 break points to Wawrinka's 2 of 12, and finished with a drop shot. The USTA played a video of the 2016 final; the stands chanted his name. "I'm going to miss it big time," Wawrinka said. "I love the game."
Matteo BerrettiniRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128 as event television: the 2016 champion, 41 and wearing a wildcard, against the 2019 semi-finalist whose serve just out-tiebreaked him at Wimbledon. Between them: one major title here, several careers' worth of injuries, and the round's highest guaranteed quality-per-point. The winner's reward is enormous and unfair at once: a Round of 64 against Novak Djokovic, in all likelihood — but this is one of those first-rounders where the next round is beside the point. Sunday through Tuesday.
What we know now
Court: Grandstand
Match length: 2:54
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.
Berrettini, in the round's best guaranteed theater. Two months ago at Wimbledon these two played one of the season's absurdities — four sets, four tiebreaks, Berrettini taking the second 18-16 — and now the tournament has drawn them straight back into each other. Wawrinka at 41, on a wildcard, is the 2016 champion here and still swings the one-handed backhand that once broke this event open; but eight wins in 2026 and a 41-year-old's recovery clock against Berrettini's serve is a hard equation. The Italian's own body has betrayed him for years, and his 15–13 season is modest — yet at 30, with a 2019 semi-final here and 113 hard-court wins, he is simply operating on fresher fuel. If it goes tiebreaks again, remember Wimbledon: Berrettini won all four. Berrettini in four.
The case for Matteo Berrettini
71% to winBerrettini just beat Wawrinka in exactly this kind of match — four tiebreak sets at Wimbledon in June — and his serve-forehand game remains top-ten grade when his body allows, as a 2019 semi-final here and a 113–90 hard-court career attest. Eleven years younger, better season, fresher legs, and the head-to-head's only entry: every measurable is his.
The case for Stan Wawrinka
29% to winWawrinka won this tournament by beating the era's best when it mattered, and his ball-striking has aged better than his ranking — the Wimbledon meeting was four tiebreaks precisely because his level remains matchable with anyone's for a set at a time. A wildcard at 41 has exactly one gear: swing freely. On a fast court, freely-swinging Wawrinka is the most dangerous 8–16 player alive.
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: Matteo Berrettini to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Won the four-tiebreak Wimbledon version nine weeks ago, and gives away eleven fewer years — the serve battle repeats, the legs don't.”
Locked 2026-08-28 03:40 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Matteo BerrettiniStan WawrinkaPlayer 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
- They played nine weeks ago at Wimbledon: Berrettini won 6-7(7) 7-6(16) 7-6(7) 7-6(5) — four sets, four tiebreaks, an 18-16 second-set breaker.
- Wawrinka, 41 and on a wildcard, is the 2016 champion and the oldest man in the draw — a three-time major winner opening against a former semi-finalist here.
- Berrettini's 2019 semi-final here is his best US Open; both men are chasing one more New York run their bodies have kept postponing.
Head to head
Berrettini leads 1–0 — Wimbledon, June, 6-7(7) 7-6(16) 7-6(7) 7-6(5). No breaks of serve across four sets; the rematch starts where that scoreline left off.
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.