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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Jakub Mensik vs Jurij Rodionov — 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-3
 Jakub Mensik✓ | 6 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
 Jurij Rodionov | 3 | 6 | 2 | 3 |
Final · Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Result
Rodionov hit more aces than Mensik, fifteen to fourteen, and won one more service game than he had any right to expect. The qualifier saved a break point in his first service game and a set point at 2-5, took the only break he managed all afternoon in the sixth game of the second set when Mensik stopped landing first serves, and converted his second set point to level the match. That was the whole of his resistance. Mensik was not broken again: two breaks took the third, a break at 4-3 settled the fourth, and he converted his first match point after 2hr31 on Court 11. He finished with 47 winners and won 67% of his second-serve points. It is a third US Open third round for the 21-year-old Czech, equalling his best here, a week after he and Karolina Muchova won the mixed doubles title in the same building. Rodionov, ranked 143rd, was in his first US Open main draw, and had beaten Jacob Fearnley in a storm-interrupted final qualifying round to get there.
Jakub MensikRows 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.
Round 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.
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.
My locked pick: Jakub Mensik to advance ✓ RIGHT
“A seeded 21-year-old serving at eighteen aces a match against a first-time main-draw qualifier, with no head-to-head to complicate it.”
Locked 2026-09-01 09:45 UTC — rendered verbatim from the pick ledger; never a fresher, hedged version
Tale of the tape
Jakub MensikJurij RodionovPlayer vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-09-02.
Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-01.
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.
Court & schedule: Court 11, 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.