US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Alex Michelsen vs 
Federico Cina
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Alex Michelsen to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
Michelsen is 22, ranked 45th, 23–17 this season with a 72–53 hard record; Cina is a 19-year-old Italian qualifier ranked 181st whose tour-level hard-court record is 3–4. Both are prospects, but one of them is three years further along and playing at home. Stadium 17 on Sunday. Michelsen in three.
The case for Alex Michelsen
86% to winRanked 136 places higher with a 72–53 career hard-court record against a 3–4 one, in front of an American crowd. Michelsen's flat ball-striking is well suited to these courts and he has a US Open second round behind him.
The case for Federico Cina
14% to winCina is 19 and has just won three qualifying matches here; teenagers who qualify at majors are usually about to be worth watching. Michelsen has never played him, and 23–17 is a good season rather than an intimidating one.
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
Alex MichelsenFederico CinaPlayer 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
- Cina, 19, is the youngest man in the men's singles main draw and playing his first US Open.
- Michelsen's tour-level hard-court record is 72–53; Cina's is 3–4.
- Both are 20-something-or-younger prospects — the kind of first round that gets revisited in five years.
Head to head
They have never met.
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: Stadium 17, 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 Nakashima or Báez in the Round of 64.
