US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Sebastian Gorznyvs
Raphael Collignon
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Raphael Collignon to advance · locked 2026-08-28 03:15 UTCPrediction
Collignon. The Belgian at No. 38 is one of the season's quiet risers — a US Open third-rounder last year, 19 wins in 2026 — and he draws a home wildcard ranked No. 760 with a single tour-level win to his name. Gorzny's wildcard is an investment in an American future, not a claim about the present: at 22 he has played three tour-level matches. The gap in match-hardness is the widest in this quarter, and Collignon's steady, margin-heavy baseline game is exactly the style that gives free-swinging wildcards nothing to work with. New York crowds have dragged wilder mismatches into fourth sets, which is the only caveat worth typing. Collignon in three, maybe three and a half.
The case for Sebastian Gorzny
10% to winGorzny swings with zero downside: a wildcard's remit is one big afternoon, and home crowds plus a first-Slam adrenaline spike have carried longer shots than No. 760. Collignon has never played a Grand Slam match as a favorite this heavy — that is its own kind of first time, and first times wobble.
The case for Raphael Collignon
90% to winCollignon proved the level last year with a third round here, and his 2026 has consolidated it: 19 wins, a top-40 debut, and the patience to strip an inexperienced opponent of rhythm. One tour-level win against him is not a puncher's chance; it is a scheduling formality with a crowd.
Both cases written 2026-08-28, before the first ball — frozen into the record exactly as written, whatever the result. The percentages are mine, quoted to a decimal because false precision is funnier — and tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
Tale of the tape
Sebastian GorznyRaphael CollignonPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-27.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
The briefing
Storylines
- Collignon's third round here in 2025 announced him; he returns at a career-high No. 38 — the highest-ranked unseeded man in this section.
- Gorzny, ranked No. 760 with one career tour-level win, received one of the USTA's home wildcards at 22.
- First meeting — Collignon has never faced an American wildcard at a major; Gorzny has never faced a top-40 player anywhere.
Head to head
Never met — there was no level at which they could have. Sunday is Gorzny's first look at the top 40, full stop.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
Watch: Opening-round coverage starts Sunday at 11 a.m. ET across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, including a whip-around channel for the early rounds. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
Court & schedule: Not yet assigned — the US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before, so day-one courts land the night of 29 August. This one profiles as a field-court match. (US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-27)
Weather: The opening window looks kind: mostly sunny and 85–86°F Sunday and Monday, with thunderstorm chances only creeping in on Tuesday. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs if the sky turns; the field courts wait it out. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-27)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
Round of 128, where wildcards meet the tour's actuarial tables: Gorzny at No. 760 is the longest shot in the men's resolved matchups, and Collignon at a career-high No. 38 is the kind of opponent who doesn't donate upsets. The winner faces Medvedev's neighborhood — a Round of 64 against the former champion here or the qualifier who draws him. For the USTA the result Sunday matters less than the minutes; for Collignon, a top-40 season needs Slam wins to hold its rank. Sunday through Tuesday, $140,000 to the loser.
Sebastian GorznyRaphael CollignonRound of 128
Sebastian GorznyRaphael CollignonRound of 64