US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Luciano Darderi vs 
Dalibor Svrcina
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Luciano Darderi to advance · locked 2026-09-01 01:20 UTCPrediction
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.
Tale of the tape
Luciano DarderiDalibor SvrcinaPlayer 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 2026-08-31.
The briefing
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.
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: Not yet assigned. The US Open posts each day's order of play the evening before, and this match has not reached the board yet. (Official US Open order-of-play release cadence, as of 2026-08-31)
Weather: Rain is the story of the week's opening, and it is forecast to get worse before it clears. Showers and thunderstorms are likely overnight — 72% under a low near 72°F — and Tuesday is the worst day on the board: near 81°F with storms likely through the day, 67%, and again after dark at 64%. Wednesday is the break in it, near 76°F on a 26% chance of showers, with a slight chance of storms returning overnight; Thursday is warm and unsettled again, near 84°F on 53%. Friday is the first clean day of the fortnight — near 82°F and mostly sunny after an early 15%. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-31)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
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.
