US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Rafael Jodar vs 
Yunchaokete Bu
This match is under way (or just finished) — the verified result lands here after the match, not point-by-point. Nothing on this page pretends to be live; the preview below is what I knew before the first serve.
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Tuesday, September 1, 2026 · Round of 128
Prediction
Jodar, and the interesting question is what the afternoon has done to him rather than who is across the net. He was drawn against Thanasi Kokkinakis, a 30-year-old on a protected ranking who has played seven matches all year; he now plays a man ranked 124th who has spent the week winning qualifying matches on these courts and lost the last of them. On form that is a downgrade for Bu and an upgrade for nobody: the Chinese has never won a main-draw match at a Grand Slam in six attempts, while Jodar has spent 2026 going from outside the top 300 to No. 13, with a title in Marrakech, a Roland Garros quarter-final on debut, a Washington final and a Montreal semi-final. What Bu does have is match play on site — three rounds of qualifying — against an opponent who has never hit a competitive ball in this main draw, on a night when the order of play has already slipped four hours and nobody knows when they are walking on. Jodar knows the courts, though: he won the boys' title on them two years ago.
The case for Rafael Jodar
84% to winJodar has had one of the great breakout seasons — No. 895 at the start of 2025, No. 13 now, and 36 wins from his first 50 tour-level matches, a mark only equalled in the Open era. He beat Alex de Minaur for a first top-ten win in Madrid, reached the last four in Montreal and the final in Washington, and made the quarter-finals at Roland Garros on debut. He is also the 2024 US Open junior champion, so this is not an unfamiliar site. Bu has never won a match in a Grand Slam main draw.
The case for Yunchaokete Bu
16% to winBu has played three matches at Flushing Meadows this week and Jodar has played none — and Jodar, at 19, has never played a US Open main-draw match at all. Bu was ranked 64th sixteen months ago, won back-to-back grass Challengers in Birmingham and Ilkley in June, and came from a set and 2-4 down to win his opening qualifying match here. He lost the final qualifying round to Federico Cina in three sets and got in anyway. A lucky loser plays with nothing at stake; a first-time seed carries the whole afternoon.
Both cases written 2026-09-01, 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
Rafael JodarYunchaokete BuPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-28.
Career head-to-head: ATP match records, via Punto de Break and Eurosport · as of 2026-09-01.
The briefing
Storylines
- Kokkinakis withdrew hours before the match with a right ankle he sprained in Cincinnati on 14 August; Bu came in as the lucky loser.
- Kokkinakis used the fifth of his nine protected-ranking entries on a match he could not start, and said he cannot use the same major twice.
- Jodar won the US Open boys' singles title on these courts in 2024, beating top seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer in the final.
- He has gone from No. 895 at the start of 2025 to a career-high No. 13, with a maiden ATP title in Marrakech and a Roland Garros quarter-final on debut.
- Bu has played six Grand Slam main draws and has never won a match in one.
- Bu lost to Federico Cina 6-3 4-6 5-7 in the final round of qualifying, on a Court 6 whose round had been pushed back a day by weather.
Head to head
They have never met, at any level. The age gap rules out a junior meeting: Bu had turned professional before Jodar reached the ITF junior circuit.
Source: ATP match records, via Punto de Break and Eurosport · as of 2026-09-01.
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: Stadium 17, Tuesday 1 September — third on, and not before the two women's singles matches ahead of it. Rain held every outside court for about four hours, so the board is running late and no fixed time applies. (Official US Open order of play, as of 2026-09-01)
Weather: Tonight is the last of the wet weather and the worst of it: showers and thunderstorms at 84% before the sky clears to mostly cloudy on a low near 71°F. Wednesday is the break the tournament has been waiting for — near 75°F on an 18% chance of a shower — though storms creep back after dark at 65%. Thursday is the unsettled one, warm at 81°F with showers and thunderstorms likely at 65% and 53% overnight. Friday turns: near 82°F and mostly sunny on 10%, the first clean day of the fortnight, with Saturday better still. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-01)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
Round of 128, third day, and one of the last first-round matches on the calendar — the fifteen-day draw spreads the opening round across Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. A withdrawal rewrote this one on the morning of the match: a seeded teenager's Grand Slam debut against a 30-year-old on a protected ranking became the same debut against a lucky loser. The winner meets Marozsan or Zheng in the Round of 64.
