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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Ignacio Buse vs Benjamin Bonzi — 6-2 7-6(4) 6-0
 Benjamin Bonzi✓ | 6 | 7 | 6 |
 Ignacio Buse | 2 | 64 | 0 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Six days earlier Buse had beaten Bonzi in the Winston-Salem semi-final and gone on to win the title. This was the return fixture, and it was not close for long. Bonzi broke in the opening game, broke again in the seventh and took the first set in 36 minutes; the second went with serve to a tiebreak he led 4-1 and closed 7-4; the third was a 25-minute bagel built on three more breaks. Buse, seeded 32nd on the back of a career-high ranking, never took one of his three break points and served seven double faults. Bonzi landed only 52% of his first serves and won 91% of them, and hit 44 winners against 24 unforced errors. Court 13 was full of Peruvian shirts: Buse was playing his seventh match in a matter of days, having come through a 3hr48 five-setter against Marcos Giron less than a day earlier for his first US Open main-draw win, and he was chasing the first Peruvian third round here this century. Bonzi, 30 and ranked 97th, plays Karen Khachanov next.
Ignacio BuseRows 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.
Ignacio BuseBenjamin Bonzi✓Round of 128
Round of 64
What we know now
Court: Court 13
Match length: 1:57
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
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.
They played ten days ago in the Winston-Salem semi-finals and Buse won 6-2 4-6 6-1 on his way to the title. He arrives in New York as the world No. 30 and the 32nd seed — the ranking landed after the seedings were set — and having just won the longest match of the tournament so far, 3 hours 48 minutes and five sets against Marcos Giron, on a day that started with a washout and ended with him dropping his racquet on the cement in front of a Peruvian crowd. Bonzi's route was gentler but not short: four sets against Alex Molcan, begun on Tuesday after three games and finished on Wednesday evening, fourteen aces and 38 winners. He is 30, ranked 97th, and only in the draw because Emilio Nava withdrew. The case for him is the recovery clock: Buse has played nearly four hours in the last twenty-four and Bonzi has played a spread-out four sets. The case against is everything else.
The case for Ignacio Buse
60% to winBuse is the seed, 67 ranking places higher, a Winston-Salem champion ten days ago and the winner of both their previous hard-court meetings this month. He is 22 and 27-19 for the season; Bonzi is 30 and 16-16. And the five-setter cuts both ways — a player who has just come through 3 hours 48 minutes and a rain washout has proved his legs before the round that usually tests them.
The case for Benjamin Bonzi
40% to winBonzi is a third-round player here — he made it last year — and he served fourteen aces past Molcan without ever looking like being broken twice in a set. He has had the kinder body clock of the two: a match spread across two evenings rather than a single 3-hour-48-minute five-setter finished the same afternoon. He also lost to Buse ten days ago in a match he led by a set, which means he has seen the pattern and has an idea what to do about it.
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: Ignacio Buse to advance ✗ WRONG
“He won the same match ten days ago, he is 67 places higher, and he is the one of the two who has already answered the fitness question this week.”
Locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Ignacio BuseBenjamin BonziPlayer 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
- They met ten days ago in the Winston-Salem semi-final; Buse won 6-2 4-6 6-1 and went on to take the title.
- Buse beat Marcos Giron 3-6 6-3 6-3 6-7(6) 6-1 in 3 hours 48 minutes — his first US Open main-draw win, and the first by a Buse here since his grandfather Eduardo in 1958.
- Buse is the 32nd seed but the world No. 30; the ranking arrived after the seedings were set.
- Bonzi is in the draw only because Emilio Nava withdrew, and it was his first Grand Slam win of the season.
- Bonzi reached the third round here last year.
Head to head
Buse leads 1-0, from the Winston-Salem semi-final ten days ago: 6-2 4-6 6-1.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
Court & schedule: Court 13, 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.