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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Roman Andres Burruchaga vs Karen Khachanov — 6-3 6-0 6-1
| Karen Khachanov✓ | 6 | 6 | 6 |
 Roman Andres Burruchaga | 3 | 0 | 1 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Burruchaga did not earn a single break point in an hour and thirty-five minutes on Court 11. Khachanov earned seven and took all seven. He broke in the second game for 3-0, and from the fourth the Argentine held the rallies better without ever threatening the serve at the other end; the second set went 6-0 on three more breaks, the third 6-1 on three more. Khachanov won 84% of his first-serve points and 85 points to 48. Burruchaga, 24 and playing the US Open main draw for the first time, hit eight winners against forty unforced errors and arrived having lost four in a row without a win on the North American swing.
Roman Andres BurruchagaRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128 with a clear subtext: the winner almost certainly gets third-seeded Félix Auger-Aliassime in the Round of 64. For Khachanov, that is a rematch of pedigrees — two former New York semi-finalists a round apart; for Burruchaga, it would be the biggest match of his life twice over. First he has to solve a surface that has never loved him, against a man built by it. Sixty-four men's openers run Sunday through Tuesday; the loser's consolation is $140,000.
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.
Khachanov. The veteran's 2026 has been mediocre by his standards (16–18), but the floor of a former US Open semi-finalist with 217 career hard-court wins remains far above Burruchaga's current ceiling on this surface — the Argentine has five tour-level hard-court wins and built his No. 59 ranking almost entirely on clay. They met once, on Burruchaga's preferred dirt in Rome last year, and Khachanov still won in three. New York's pace favors his flat, heavy hitting more than any other Slam surface, and a first US Open main draw is a lot to absorb against a man with a decade of big-stadium matches behind him. Khachanov in four at the generous end.
The case for Roman Andres Burruchaga
21% to winBurruchaga pushed Khachanov to a deciding set in their only meeting, and the veteran's .500 season is an invitation: players in form-droughts lose exactly these matches when the younger man makes them run. At 24, with a rising ranking and zero expectations on a court nobody expects him to like, he swings free while Khachanov carries all the obligation.
The case for Karen Khachanov
79% to winKhachanov's résumé at this tournament — a 2022 semi-final — and on this surface (217 hard-court wins to five) makes this the widest surface-experience mismatch in the round. He won the only prior meeting on the opponent's best surface; on his own best one, the calculation gets simpler, not harder.
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: Karen Khachanov to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A 40-to-1 surface-experience edge and a former semi-final here — even a flat Khachanov outranks a clay-built debutant on DecoTurf's descendant.”
Locked 2026-08-28 02:55 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Roman Andres BurruchagaKaren KhachanovPlayer 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
- Khachanov's 2022 semi-final here is the deepest US Open run in this section of the draw — and he opens against a man playing his first US Open main-draw match.
- The only previous meeting came on Burruchaga's surface — clay in Rome, 2025 — and Khachanov won it in three sets.
- Burruchaga has five career tour-level hard-court wins; every other man in this eighth has at least ten times his surface mileage.
Head to head
Khachanov leads 1–0 from Rome 2025 — on clay, Burruchaga's home surface, and it still took a 6-1 third set to close it. Sunday moves the contest to the surface where Khachanov has spent his career.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Court 11, 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.