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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Zizou Bergs vs Jesper de Jong — 7-5 1-6 6-2 7-6(2)
 Zizou Bergs✓ | 7 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
 Jesper de Jong | 5 | 6 | 2 | 62 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Twenty-four double faults, thirteen breaks of serve, three hours thirty-nine minutes. Bergs lost the first four games of it and then won seven of the next eight, de Jong double-faulting twice while serving to stay in the set at 5-6. The second set was the only clean stretch either man managed and de Jong took it 6-1. In the third he served at 40-15 in the eighth game, lost five straight points including two more double faults, and handed over the set. The fourth produced an immediate exchange of breaks and then nine consecutive holds; in the tiebreak de Jong won the first two points before Bergs won seven in a row, serving aces at 3-2 and 6-2. De Jong finished with sixteen double faults, on top of fifteen in his first round. The two are friends and former doubles partners who had met once before, in 2021 on the Futures circuit. Bergs, seeded at a major for the first time in his career, is in the last 32 here for the second year running. Next: Botic van de Zandschulp, a second Dutchman in succession.
Zizou BergsRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
The Round of 64 halves the draw again: 32 men's matches across Wednesday and Thursday, every one of them between players who have already won here this week. The seeds who came through the opening round now meet opponents carrying form rather than a ranking.
Zizou Bergs✓Jesper de JongRound of 128
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.
Bergs is seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time, and this is the round where that seeding is supposed to earn its keep. He needed two days to get out of the first round against Carlos Taberner — rain stopped it at 2-1 in the fourth on Tuesday night — but the shape of it was never in doubt: eleven aces to none, six of seven break points taken. De Jong took even longer over his opening round, 3 hours 51 minutes and five sets against the qualifier Francesco Passaro, spread across two days and two rain breaks, and won it despite fifteen double faults of his own. He is 11-20 for the season and ranked 100th; Bergs is 37th and reached the third round here last year. The gap is real and the Elo tables put it near 140 points. What complicates it is the tennis both men have already spent: de Jong has been on court almost four hours, Bergs nearly three across two evenings, and the forecast has more rain in it. A long match suits the man who has just won one.
The case for Zizou Bergs
68% to winBergs is the seed, 63 places higher, and the only one of the two with a third round on his record here. He served eleven aces past Taberner and did not lose a service game he needed; his first serve won 82% of its points. He also had the more economical route — a straight four sets against a player on a protected ranking, rather than five against a qualifier who had come through three matches without dropping a set.
The case for Jesper de Jong
32% to winDe Jong has just won a five-setter from a set down, twice, in conditions that stopped and restarted three times, and he did it while serving fifteen double faults — which is to say he found a way through a bad day. Bergs is 17-19 for the season and has never made a major fourth round; a seeding at 31 is the least secure kind there is. And the Dutchman broke serve seven times on Wednesday, which is not the profile of a man who will be blown off court by an ace count.
Both cases written 2026-09-02, 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: Zizou Bergs to advance ✓ RIGHT
“Sixty-three ranking places, a first-time seeding to defend and the shorter first round; de Jong has spent nearly four hours to reach a match he starts as an outsider.”
Locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Zizou BergsJesper de JongPlayer 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 2026-09-02.
Storylines
- Bergs is seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
- Both first-round matches were suspended overnight by Tuesday's rain and finished on Wednesday.
- Bergs beat Carlos Taberner 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-2 with eleven aces to none.
- De Jong beat the qualifier Francesco Passaro 2-6 6-2 4-6 6-3 6-2 in 3 hours 51 minutes, serving fifteen double faults.
- They have never played each other.
Head to head
They have never met.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Court & schedule: Court 7, Thursday 3 September. 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 2026-09-02)
Weather: Sunday — the men's final, and the last match of the fortnight — is 78°F with showers and thunderstorms 95% likely, the wettest day of the two weeks and the one day that cannot be pushed back. Ashe closes its roof and plays on. It clears overnight: 20% Sunday night, 20% Monday, then dry and sunny from Tuesday. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-13)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.