US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 128
Dalibor Svrcina vs 
Valentin Royer
Sunday, August 30, 2026 · Round of 128
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Dalibor Svrcina to advance · locked 2026-08-29 01:40 UTCPrediction
A coin flip with a small lean. Royer is ranked 74th to Svrčina's 134th, but his season is 4–18 — the kind of record that makes a ranking a lagging indicator — while Svrčina is 12–13 and has just won three qualifying matches here. Career hard-court records are nearly identical (Royer 25–28, Svrčina 27–29), the hard-court Elos are 49 points apart, and they have never met. Royer has been here before, reaching the second round in 2025; this is Svrčina's first US Open. Form says the qualifier; the ranking and the venue experience say Royer. Take the man who has been winning matches this week.
The case for Dalibor Svrcina
47% to winSvrčina is 12–13 on the season against Royer's 4–18, and he has three wins on these courts inside the last five days. At 23 he is the younger man with the fresher legs, and a first US Open main draw after qualifying is the sort of week players find another gear in.
The case for Valentin Royer
53% to winRoyer is 60 places higher in the world, has a US Open second round behind him and did not have to spend a week in qualifying to be here. A 4–18 season is ugly, but it is largely a schedule of losses to better players than Svrčina; on paper he is the more accomplished hard-court player and he arrives rested.
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
Dalibor SvrcinaValentin RoyerPlayer 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
- Svrčina is playing his first US Open main draw, at 23, after coming through qualifying.
- Royer is ranked 74th on the back of a 4–18 season — one of the widest gaps between ranking and current form in the draw.
- Their career hard-court records are within two matches of each other: Royer 25–28, Svrčina 27–29.
Head to head
No previous meetings. Their career hard-court records are close enough to be indistinguishable — 25–28 for Royer, 27–29 for Svrčina.
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 Darderi or Wendelken in the Round of 64.
