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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Yunchaokete Bu vs Michael Zheng — 6-3 2-6 6-2 6-3
 Michael Zheng✓ | 6 | 2 | 6 | 6 |
 Yunchaokete Bu | 3 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Zheng lost US Open qualifying three years running, missed the ranking cut-off this time, and got in on a main-draw wild card handed out on 18 August. He is now in the last 32 at consecutive majors. Bu, a lucky loser who had replaced the injured Thanasi Kokkinakis and then beaten the 12th seed Rafael Jodar for his first Grand Slam main-draw win at the seventh attempt, took the second set 6-2 by winning its opening three games — and won only four of the sixteen games that followed. Zheng hit 13 aces to eight and 48 winners to 26, landed barely half his first serves and won 83% of the points on them, and converted six of eleven break points. It is his first US Open main draw and his first third round here. He finished a Columbia psychology degree this year and is a two-time NCAA singles champion; he won the second of those titles against Trevor Svajda, whose older brother Zachary was losing on Court 6 the same evening. Next: Arthur Gea.
Yunchaokete BuRows 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.
Round 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.
A lucky loser against a wild card, and whoever wins it reaches a Grand Slam third round for the first time. Bu, 24 and ranked 124th, was beaten in the last round of qualifying and only got in when Thanasi Kokkinakis withdrew; he then took 108 minutes to remove the 12th seed Rafael Jodar for the loss of four games, and did not face a break point doing it. Zheng, 22 and ranked 107th, is playing his first US Open main draw at the fourth attempt, having lost in qualifying three years running before the USTA handed him a wild card. He beat Fabian Marozsan, the world No. 63, in straight sets on Wednesday — his second win over the Hungarian in three weeks, after coming from a set down in Cincinnati. Neither had a major main-draw win before this week and neither has ever played the other. The tilt is toward Zheng: a New York crowd behind a two-time NCAA champion from Columbia, and a serve that has been the best shot on either side of the net all week. But Bu has the better win of the two, by some distance.
The case for Yunchaokete Bu
47% to winBu beat a seed 6-2 6-1 6-1 and never faced a break point in the match. He is the more experienced player at tour level despite the ranking gap, and he arrives with nothing to lose: a lucky loser who was packing on Sunday is playing with house money, and a draw that has already opened for him once can open again. Zheng, for all the form, has never won two matches at this level in the same week.
The case for Michael Zheng
53% to winZheng has beaten Marozsan twice in three weeks and did it here without dropping a set, saving five of the six break points he faced. He is 18-9 for the season and has the crowd, the court time and the local knowledge; he has also had one fewer scheduling shock than an opponent who did not know until Monday that he was in the tournament. Bu has not won back-to-back tour-level matches since October 2025.
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: Michael Zheng to advance ✓ RIGHT
“No head-to-head and no form line at this level for either, so it comes down to the serve that has been holding up all week and the court it is being hit on.”
Locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Yunchaokete BuMichael ZhengPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-04.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Storylines
- Bu is in the draw as a lucky loser, Zheng on a wild card; the winner reaches a Grand Slam third round for the first time.
- Bu beat the 12th seed Rafael Jodar 6-2 6-1 6-1 without facing a break point.
- Zheng, a two-time NCAA singles champion at Columbia, had lost in US Open qualifying three years running before this year's wild card.
- Zheng has now beaten Fabian Marozsan twice in three weeks, having also come from a set down in Cincinnati.
- 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 12, 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.