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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Francisco Cerundolo vs Filip Misolic — 6-4 6-3 7-5
 Francisco Cerundolo✓ | 6 | 6 | 7 |
 Filip Misolic | 4 | 3 | 5 |
Final · Tuesday, September 1, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Neither man could find a first serve — 51% for Cerundolo, 42% for Misolic, ten double faults from the winner — in a match that began four hours late under low cloud and intermittent rain. It was closer than 6-4 6-3 7-5 suggests: Misolic led by a break in the second set and, having trailed 2-5 in the third, won three games in a row to level at 5-5 before Cerundolo took the last two. This was Misolic's first match in more than six months, played on a protected ranking; days earlier he had hit with Novak Djokovic in Montenegro at Djokovic's own invitation, and he had said beforehand that a good fight and a body that held up would count as success. Cerundolo, the 24th seed, converted eight of fourteen break points and won 107 points to 85, arriving on the back of first-match losses in Montreal and Cincinnati. He has never been past the third round in New York.
Francisco CerundoloRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
Round of 128: the round where seeds are graded on efficiency, and Cerúndolo's assignment is the clearest on the card — a 2–0 head-to-head over the world No. 530. The context worth carrying: he has never made the second week here, his section funnels toward ninth-seeded Taylor Fritz, and 28 wins this season say his level is better than his New York history. Openers run Sunday through Tuesday; the loser's check reads $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.
Cerúndolo, and it should be quick. The 24th seed has won both career meetings without dropping a set — including a straight-sets hard-court win in Vienna — and arrives with a 28–16 season against Misolic's 1–3. The Austrian is ranked No. 530, playing his first US Open, and his tour-level results this year are close to a blank page. Cerúndolo's game has its known wobble — the forehand misfires in patches, and his 2R ceiling here says New York hasn't loved him — but a first-round draw like this is precisely how a seed books a low-stress start. Straight sets, with one competitive stretch somewhere in the middle.
The case for Francisco Cerundolo
87% to winTwo meetings, six sets, zero dropped: Cerúndolo has already answered this question twice, once on this surface. His 28-win season is among the best in this quarter's supporting cast, and the draw has handed him the lowest-ranked direct opponent any seed received. Professional efficiency is the entire assignment.
The case for Filip Misolic
13% to winMisolic has played Cerúndolo close to even for stretches before — the Roland-Garros meeting had a 7-6(2) second set — and a seed whose US Open history is two early exits carries his own New York doubts onto the court. At No. 530 with nothing at stake, the Austrian's flat backhand can keep rallies honest; every game he holds early compounds the seed's known fragility.
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: Francisco Cerundolo to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Two head-to-head wins without a dropped set, 500 ranking places, and a 28-win season — this is the seed's free square.”
Locked 2026-08-28 03:15 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Francisco CerundoloFilip MisolicPlayer 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
- Cerúndolo has won both career meetings without losing a set — Vienna 2022 on hard, Roland-Garros 2024 in a rout.
- Misolic, ranked No. 530, is the lowest-ranked man in the field's resolved matchups and is making his US Open debut.
- Cerúndolo has never passed the second round here in his career — the softest possible opener is his chance to fix the anomaly in his otherwise top-25 résumé.
Head to head
Cerúndolo leads 2–0 and has not dropped a set: 6-3 6-3 in Vienna on hard in 2022, then 6-2 7-6(2) 6-0 at Roland-Garros in 2024. Misolic's competitive window has been one tiebreak wide.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Court & schedule: Court 5, 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.