US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Martin Landaluce vs 
Jacob Fearnley
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Jacob Fearnley to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
The tightest match on the men's first-round board by hard-court Elo: 1663.0 against 1664.4, a gap of 1.4 points. Landaluce is 20, ranked 65th and 19–18 on the season, playing his first US Open main draw; Fearnley is 25, in as a lucky loser at 100th, 8–11 with a second round here last year. Fearnley has the venue experience and the extra match play from qualifying; Landaluce has the better season and the higher ranking. There is no honest way to call this one — Fearnley by a hair, on the grounds that a lucky loser has already found his range on these courts.
The case for Martin Landaluce
48% to winLandaluce is 35 places higher in the world, 19–18 against 8–11, and at 20 the trajectory is all his. He has not spent the week grinding qualifying, so he arrives fresh into a match that could go five.
The case for Jacob Fearnley
52% to winFearnley has played on these courts this week and reached the second round here in 2025, which is one round more than Landaluce's zero. A lucky loser is a player who has already proved he belongs and then been given the reprieve — historically a dangerous first-round draw.
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
Martin LandaluceJacob FearnleyPlayer 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
- A 1.4-point hard-court Elo gap — the closest matchup in the men's first round.
- Fearnley is in as a lucky loser after losing in the final round of qualifying.
- Landaluce, 20, is playing his first US Open main-draw match.
Head to head
They have never met. Their hard-court Elo ratings are 1.4 points apart.
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: Court 5, Sunday 30 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 2026-08-28)
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 Etcheverry or Kopřiva in the Round of 64.
