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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Sebastian Gorzny vs Raphael Collignon — 3-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 7-6(9)
 Sebastian Gorzny✓ | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 7 |
 Raphael Collignon | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 69 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Collignon held five match points and lost 168 points to 166. The world No. 731, in through the American collegiate wild-card playoff, saved four of them in a twelfth game that ran twelve minutes to force the deciding tiebreak, trailed it 2-5, 4-7 and 5-8, and won it 11-9 when Collignon's second serve clipped the net cord and dropped out. The match had begun on Sunday and been stopped by rain a set and a half from the end. Seventeen double faults from Collignon, 59 winners and 68 unforced errors from Gorzny, 3 hours 58 minutes — and a first Grand Slam main-draw win, with Medvedev next.
Sebastian GorznyRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
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.
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.
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 — opinions with a percent sign on. They add to 100 because tennis has no draw to hide the rounding in.
My locked pick: Raphael Collignon to advance ✗ WRONG
“Seven hundred ranking places and a third round here last year — the steadiest game in the section against the least tested.”
Locked 2026-08-28 03:15 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Sebastian GorznyRaphael CollignonPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-27.
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.
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.