US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Luciano Darderi vs Dalibor Svrcina — 6-3 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4
 Luciano Darderi✓ | 6 | 65 | 6 | 6 |
 Dalibor Svrcina | 3 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Dalibor Svrcina hit seventy winners to Luciano Darderi's fifty-three, came to the net fifty-three times and won thirty-eight of those points — and lost in four sets, because he served twenty double faults. Four came consecutively, in a game at 2-2 in the second set that he lost to love without Darderi touching a ball. The sixteenth handed Darderi the third set on his third set point. The last, a second serve into the net at 40-0, ended the match. There were seventeen breaks of serve in three hours and forty-four minutes on Court 12 — ten to Darderi from twenty-three chances, seven to Svrcina from twenty. Svrcina took the second set in a tiebreak he had led 5-1, after Darderi saved a set point serving at 5-6; Darderi was then broken serving for the third at 5-3, called the physio for his left leg at 1-2 in the fourth, and had words with a spectator when he was broken for 3-4. Svrcina is 23, ranked 134, and had come through qualifying and a four-hour five-setter to reach a US Open second round for the first time. Darderi, seeded 21, has won all five of his tour titles on clay; this is a second straight third round in New York.
Luciano DarderiRows the source hadn’t published are left off rather than guessed.
At this Stage
The Round of 64 is where a Grand Slam draw stops being a lottery and becomes a tournament. Sixty-four men's matches opened the bracket; thirty-two across Wednesday and Thursday halve what is left, and everyone still here has already won on these courts. Seeds who came through the first round now meet opponents carrying form rather than a ranking.
Luciano Darderi✓Dalibor SvrcinaRound 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.
Darderi, on the balance of everything except the one time they have actually played each other. The 21st seed took 3 hours 49 minutes to beat the qualifier Harry Wendelken in four sets on a court the rain had made heavy, and he was angry about the footing and conceded eleven break points in a single set — not a performance, but he found a way to break at 5-5 in the fourth on his fifth chance of the game. Svrcina took even longer: 4 hours 3 minutes to beat Valentin Royer, two sets up, two sets back, and then the fifth, with fifteen double faults in it. He is the world No. 134 in the US Open main draw for the first time in his life and has now been on court more than eleven hours in a week counting qualifying. That is the case against him and it is a real one; the case for him is that he won their only previous meeting, when Darderi retired at Los Cabos in July, and that he hit 61 winners on Sunday. Darderi is the better hard-court player on ranking and nothing else — 19-41 for his career on the surface — which is why this is closer than a 21st seed against a qualifier should be.
The case for Luciano Darderi
64% to winDarderi is ranked 112 places higher, has already reached the third round here once, and hit fifteen aces in a match he never controlled — the raw material is better than the performance was. Wendelken was a qualifier playing the best tennis of his life on a slippery court; Svrcina is a qualifier who has spent four hours more on court than Darderi in the last seven days. And Darderi's problem on Sunday was the surface, which will have dried by Wednesday.
The case for Dalibor Svrcina
36% to winSvrcina has already beaten him once, and he has the harder-earned week: three qualifying rounds and then a five-set recovery from two sets all, hitting 61 winners and converting ten of eighteen break points. Fifteen double faults in four hours is a serve under stress, but it is also a player who kept going for it. Darderi's career hard-court record is 19-41 and he was broken seven times by the world No. 196 — this is not a surface on which his ranking protects him.
Both cases written 2026-09-01, 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: Luciano Darderi to advance ✓ RIGHT
“The seed, on ranking and on rest, against a qualifier who has been on court eleven hours in a week — but the head-to-head belongs to the qualifier.”
Locked 2026-09-01 01:20 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Luciano DarderiDalibor SvrcinaPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-02.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
Storylines
- Darderi needed 3 hours 49 minutes and five break points in one game at 5-5 to get past the qualifier Harry Wendelken, in a match rain interrupted and left the court heavy.
- Svrcina, the world No. 134, is in the US Open main draw for the first time in his career and came from two sets all to beat Valentin Royer in 4 hours 3 minutes.
- Their only meeting was at Los Cabos in July 2026, and Svrcina got the win when Darderi retired at 3-0.
- Darderi's career hard-court record is 19-41; Svrcina's is 30-30.
- Between them they have played 7 hours 52 minutes of first-round tennis, plus Svrcina's three rounds of qualifying.
Head to head
One meeting, at Los Cabos in July 2026: Svrcina was credited with the win when the match ended in a retirement at 3-0.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
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.