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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Zizou Bergs vs 
Jesper de Jong
Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Zizou Bergs to advance · locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTCPrediction
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.
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.
The briefing
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.
Watch: Second-round coverage runs across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with ESPN Deportes in Spanish — and every court streams in the ESPN app, which is where a match away from the two show courts will live. (ESPN press-room release and listings, as of 2026-08-27)
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: Wednesday night is wet: showers and thunderstorms likely at 64% on a low near 72°F, which is the night session's problem and the roofs' answer. Thursday stays unsettled — 83°F, showers and thunderstorms likely, again at 64% — and eases to 33% overnight. Friday improves without quite clearing: mostly sunny and 82°F, with a slight shower chance at 23%. Saturday is the clean day, sunny and 78°F on 2%, and Sunday is sunny at 74°F. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-02)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
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.
Round of 128
Round of 32