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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
James Duckworth vs 
Yibing Wu
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Yibing Wu to advance · locked 2026-08-31 20:50 UTCPrediction
The closest match on this list, and the ratings barely separate them — Wu by about 56–44 on a 37-point Elo gap. Duckworth, 34 and ranked No. 71, took out the 30th seed Matteo Arnaldi 5-7 6-3 6-2 7-6(8) by coming to the net 48 times and winning 31 of those points, with sixteen aces to five, over 3 hours 25 minutes. Wu had the shorter day: 7-6(2) 6-2 7-5 over Adam Walton in 2 hours 24, five breaks from thirteen, 43 winners to 29. The surface records are close to identical in rate — Wu 44–33, Duckworth 117–144 — and the difference is age and mileage rather than ability: Wu is 26 and reached the third round here in 2022, Duckworth's best in New York is a second round. Both have won a lot of tennis to get here and neither has beaten the other, because they have never played.
The case for James Duckworth
44% to winDuckworth just beat a seed by playing a style nobody else in this section is playing: 48 approaches, 31 points won at the net, and a fourth-set tiebreak taken 10-8 after three and a half hours. Sixteen aces against five says the serve is where it needs to be, and at 34 with 261 career hard-court matches behind him he has been in more of these than Wu has. He also came through the tighter match, which counts for something in a round where nobody is fresh.
The case for Yibing Wu
56% to winWu spent an hour less on court and won more comfortably: a first-set tiebreak taken 7-2, then a 6-2 and a 7-5, 43 winners to 29 and only 34 unforced errors. He is eight years younger with a better hard-court win rate (44–33 to Duckworth's 117–144) and has been to the third round here, which Duckworth has not. Duckworth's 14–20 season is the least encouraging record either player brings into the match.
Both cases written 2026-08-31, 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
James DuckworthYibing WuPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-31.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-31.
The briefing
Storylines
- Duckworth beat 30th seed Matteo Arnaldi 5-7 6-3 6-2 7-6(8), coming to the net 48 times and winning 31 of those points.
- The fourth-set tiebreak went 10-8 after 3 hours 25 minutes.
- Wu beat Adam Walton 7-6(2) 6-2 7-5 in 2 hours 24 with 43 winners to 29.
- Wu reached the third round here in 2022; Duckworth's best US Open is a second round.
- First meeting, and the Elo gap between them is 37 points.
Head to head
They have never met at tour level.
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.
Round of 128
Round of 32