US Open 2026 pages
Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Jakub Mensik vs 
Jurij Rodionov
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Jakub Mensik to advance · locked 2026-09-01 09:45 UTCPrediction
Mensik, and comfortably, unless the serve that beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard turns up again. The 17th seed had the tidier Monday by some way — 6-1 6-4 7-5 against the lucky loser Shintaro Mochizuki in two hours three minutes, eighteen aces to one, with the only wobble a third set in which he was broken back three times after a rain interruption. He also won the mixed doubles title here five days ago with Karolina Muchova, and he turns 21 today. Rodionov's week has been the more remarkable: a left-handed qualifier ranked 143rd, in the US Open main draw for the first time at 27, who beat one of the biggest servers on tour 7-6(2) 6-0 7-6(4) without losing a set. They have never played. The gap is large — nearly 320 points of hard-court Elo — and Mensik's own serve neutralises the one weapon that has carried Rodionov this far.
The case for Jakub Mensik
82% to winEighteen aces to one on Monday, and seven breaks of serve from eleven chances. Mensik is the 17th seed at No. 18, 30-17 on the season with semi-finals at Doha and Roland Garros, and 77-42 for his career on hard courts against Rodionov's 29-41. He has beaten better returners than this on this surface, and he is playing with a Grand Slam trophy from last week already in his bag.
The case for Jurij Rodionov
18% to winRodionov is a left-hander, which is the one thing on this side of the draw Mensik has not had to solve, and he beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard — 6ft 8in and among the heaviest servers in the game — in straight sets with two tiebreaks won. A qualifier in his first US Open main draw at 27 has nothing to protect. If the rain that interrupted Mensik on Monday returns on Wednesday, a serving contest between two big left-and-right-handed servers becomes a lottery of a few points.
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
Jakub MensikJurij RodionovPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-01.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-01.
The briefing
Storylines
- Rodionov, a qualifier ranked 143rd, beat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 7-6(2) 6-0 7-6(4) in his first US Open main-draw match.
- Mensik won the US Open mixed doubles title with Karolina Muchova on 26 August, five days before his singles opener.
- Mensik turns 21 on the day this round's order of play is posted; Rodionov is 27 and playing his first main draw here.
- Mensik hit eighteen aces to Mochizuki's one on Monday but was broken back three times in the third set after a rain delay.
- They have never played each other at any level.
Head to head
They have never met.
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-01.
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 2026-09-01)
Weather: Tonight is the last of the wet weather and the worst of it: showers and thunderstorms at 84% before the sky clears to mostly cloudy on a low near 71°F. Wednesday is the break the tournament has been waiting for — near 75°F on an 18% chance of a shower — though storms creep back after dark at 65%. Thursday is the unsettled one, warm at 81°F with showers and thunderstorms likely at 65% and 53% overnight. Friday turns: near 82°F and mostly sunny on 10%, the first clean day of the fortnight, with Saturday better still. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-01)
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.
