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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Alex de Minaur vs 
Botic van de Zandschulp
Thursday, September 3, 2026 · Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Alex de Minaur to advance · locked 2026-09-02 23:55 UTCPrediction
De Minaur has beaten van de Zandschulp four times out of four and has not dropped a set to him since 2022. He came through Andrea Guerrieri, a qualifier making his major debut, for the loss of eight games and 99 minutes, winning 82% of the points behind his first serve; he is a quarter-finalist here in each of the last two years and the sixth seed. Van de Zandschulp's case is that he was a quarter-finalist here too, in 2021, and that he has just played the cleanest match of his week — never broken, sixteen aces, 88% of first-serve points won, two break points faced and both saved against Jan Choinski. That is exactly the tennis it takes to trouble de Minaur, whose whole game is built on making an opponent play one more ball than he wants to. The trouble is that the Dutchman has now had four goes at it and has found the answer for one set of the sixteen they have played. The most recent, a Rotterdam quarter-final in February, went to 7-5 in the third, which is the closest he has been.
The case for Alex de Minaur
81% to winFour wins from four, and de Minaur has been the fitter, faster and more consistent player in every one of them. He is the world No. 7 against the world No. 70, a quarter-finalist here in both of the last two years, and he has dropped eight games in the tournament so far. He returns deeper than anyone left in this quarter, which is precisely the shot that turns a big server's free points into rallies.
The case for Botic van de Zandschulp
19% to winVan de Zandschulp is not broken when he serves like this: sixteen aces, no break points conceded and 88% of his first serves won on Wednesday. He is a former US Open quarter-finalist on this court, has beaten top-ten players at this tournament before, and took de Minaur to 7-5 in the third at Rotterdam in February. He is also the taller man by three inches, and de Minaur's answer to a big first serve is to hope it misses.
Both cases written 2026-09-02, 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
Alex de MinaurBotic van de ZandschulpPlayer 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 2026-09-02.
The briefing
Storylines
- De Minaur leads the head-to-head 4-0; van de Zandschulp has won one set in four meetings.
- Both men have reached a US Open quarter-final — de Minaur in each of the last two years, van de Zandschulp in 2021.
- Van de Zandschulp was not broken against Jan Choinski: sixteen aces, 88% of first-serve points won, both break points he faced saved.
- De Minaur beat the qualifier Andrea Guerrieri 6-2 6-2 6-4 in 1 hour 39 minutes.
- It is van de Zandschulp's fifth second round in six US Opens.
Head to head
De Minaur leads 4-0. The closest was a Rotterdam quarter-final in February, 3-6 7-6(4) 7-5; before that came Doha in 2025 (6-4 6-4), the Australian Open first round in 2025 (6-1 7-5 6-4) and a Davis Cup Finals rubber in November 2022 (5-7 6-3 6-4).
Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-09-02.
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: Grandstand, 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: Wednesday night is wet: showers and thunderstorms likely at 64% on a low near 72°F, which is the night session's problem and the roofs' answer. Thursday stays unsettled — 83°F, showers and thunderstorms likely, again at 64% — and eases to 33% overnight. Friday improves without quite clearing: mostly sunny and 82°F, with a slight shower chance at 23%. Saturday is the clean day, sunny and 78°F on 2%, and Sunday is sunny at 74°F. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs and play on; everything else waits. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-09-02)
Venue: USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York — hard.
At this Stage
The Round of 64 halves the draw again: 32 men's matches across Wednesday and Thursday, every one of them between players who have already won here this week. The seeds who came through the opening round now meet opponents carrying form rather than a ranking.
Round of 128
Round of 32