US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Jakub Mensik vs Shintaro Mochizuki — 6-1 6-4 7-5
 Jakub Mensik✓ | 6 | 6 | 7 |
 Shintaro Mochizuki | 1 | 4 | 5 |
Final · Monday, August 31, 2026 · Round of 128
Result
Eighteen aces to one. Mensik, five days on from winning the mixed doubles title here with Karolina Muchova and a day short of his twenty-first birthday, took the first set on Court 5 in twenty-six minutes, breaking twice off Mochizuki's second serve. One break settled the second, and Mochizuki — a lucky loser who had lost the qualifying final to Francesco Passaro — did not earn a break point of his own until the eighth game, by which point he was two sets down. The third was the only competitive one: Mensik broke at the start, rain interrupted play in the third game, and after the resumption he tightened up enough that Mochizuki broke back three times to level the set on breaks. Mensik broke a fourth time in the eleventh game and served it out, 6-1 6-4 7-5 in two hours three minutes, seven of eleven break points converted against three of four. "When there are these rain breaks it's never easy," he said. "Even though the momentum turned a bit in the third set and he started playing more actively and better, I'm glad I woke up quickly and finished it in three." Their only previous meeting was a Challenger in 2023, which Mochizuki won. The Austrian qualifier Jurij Rodionov is next.
Jakub MensikRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
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.
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.
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.
My locked pick: Jakub Mensik to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A 17th seed fresh off winning the mixed doubles title here, against a 9–17 lucky loser.”
Locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
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.
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.
Court & schedule: Court 5, 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.