US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Jakub Mensik vs 
Shintaro Mochizuki
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Jakub Mensik to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
Menšík is 20 years old, seeded 17th, 30–16 on the season and 77–41 on hard courts — and three days ago he won the mixed doubles title on these courts with Karolína Muchová. Mochizuki is in as a lucky loser, ranked 117th, 9–17 this season with a 35–55 career hard record. The serve alone should settle it. The only question is whether the doubles run has left anything in the legs; on the evidence of the final, it has.
The case for Jakub Mensik
88% to winTwenty-year-old top-20 player with one of the biggest serves in the draw, already a title-winner at this tournament this week, and a 30–16 season. He has never played Mochizuki, but he has never needed to — a lucky loser who is 9–17 on the year is not the test.
The case for Shintaro Mochizuki
12% to winMochizuki has just played and lost a qualifying final, then been handed a reprieve — he is match-tight and playing free. Menšík has spent the week in a mixed doubles draw that ran through a night session on Wednesday; if the serve is a fraction off and the legs are heavy, a lucky loser with nothing to lose is the wrong opponent.
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
Jakub MensikShintaro MochizukiPlayer 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
- Menšík won the US Open mixed doubles title with Karolína Muchová on 26 August — four days before this match.
- Mochizuki is in the draw as a lucky loser after losing in the final round of qualifying.
- Menšík is 20 and seeded 17th; his best US Open run is the third round in 2024.
Head to head
No previous meetings. Menšík is 77–41 on hard courts for his career, Mochizuki 35–55.
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 Rodionov or Mpetshi Perricard in the Round of 64.
