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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Luciano Darderi vs 
Harry Wendelken
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Luciano Darderi to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
Darderi is the 21st seed and world No. 22; Wendelken is a 196th-ranked qualifier making his Grand Slam main-draw debut. The complication is the surface: Darderi's ranking is built on clay, and his career hard-court record is 19–40 — the worst of any seed in this quarter. Wendelken has no tour-level hard-court record at all (0–0), which is its own kind of unknown. Seed and season (32–21) still win this comfortably enough, but a first set that goes the wrong way would surprise nobody who has watched Darderi on a hard court.
The case for Luciano Darderi
76% to winTwenty-second in the world against 196th is the whole argument, and Darderi's 32–21 season is the best record on this court by a wide margin. He reached the third round here last year, so the venue is not new, and a debutant qualifier who has never won a tour-level hard-court match is not the opponent to expose a surface weakness.
The case for Harry Wendelken
24% to winDarderi's 19–40 career hard-court record is the softest underbelly any seed brings into this round, and Wendelken arrives having won three qualifying matches on these exact courts this week. First Grand Slam main draw, nothing to lose, an opponent playing his least favourite surface — if the seed is tight early, the arithmetic changes fast.
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
Luciano DarderiHarry WendelkenPlayer 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
- Wendelken is making his Grand Slam main-draw debut at 24, through three rounds of qualifying.
- Darderi is seeded 21st on a hard court despite a 19–40 career record on the surface — his ranking is a clay-court ranking.
- Neither man has played the other; Wendelken has no tour-level hard-court wins or losses on record at all.
Head to head
They have never met. Wendelken arrives without a tour-level hard-court record of any kind, so there is no form line between them at all.
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 Svrčina or Royer in the Round of 64.
