US Open 2026 pages

Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64

Arthur Rinderknech vs Jaume Munar

Round of 64

Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app

My pick: Arthur Rinderknech to advance · locked 2026-08-31 03:00 UTC

Prediction

Rinderknech, on recovery time as much as anything. These two are a genuine coin-flip on paper — 1–1 lifetime, both meetings on hard courts, career records within a few matches of each other — so the tiebreaker is what each of them spent to get here. Munar came from two sets down to beat Terence Atmane 6-7(5) 3-6 6-1 7-6(4) 7-5; Rinderknech dropped the opening tiebreak to Sho Shimabukuro and then closed it out in four. The seeded Frenchman is also the bigger server by five inches of height, which is the shot that travels best on this surface and the one that costs least to hit. Munar's counter is that he owns the more recent meeting, in Miami last year, and that both men reached the fourth round here in 2025 — this is familiar ground for each of them. It should be close. It should also be shorter for the man who has spent less.

The case for Arthur Rinderknech

53% to win

The Frenchman is the seed, the higher-ranked player at No. 29, and the one with the better career hard-court record — 87–90 against Munar's 68–91. Thin margins, but they point the same way, and they sit on top of a serve delivered from 6′5″ on the fastest surface either man plays. Most of all he is fresher: four sets against Shimabukuro, against five from two down for Munar. Their one meeting on Rinderknech's terms, Metz in 2022, he won 6-2 2-6 7-5.

The case for Jaume Munar

47% to win

Munar has the more recent win — 6-3 7-6(5) at the Miami Masters in March 2025, on a hard court, in straight sets — and he has just proved he can survive a bad start at this tournament: two sets down to Atmane, and through in five anyway. He matches Rinderknech's fourth round here last year, so neither man is out of his depth at this stage of this event. A five-setter cuts both ways, too: the legs are heavier, but the timing is grooved, and Munar has now spent the better part of four hours reading this court's bounce while his opponent spent rather less.

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.

26Rinderknech
Munar
vs

Tale of the tape

Arthur RinderknechJaume Munar
1Career head-to-head1
31Age29
6′5″ (1.96 m)Height6′0″ (1.83 m)
88 kg (193 lb)Weight76 kg (168 lb)
Right-handedPlaysRight-handed
2018Turned pro2014
No. 29RankingNo. 55
17–202026 win–loss11–16
87–90Career on hard courts68–91
0Grand Slam titles0
4R (2025)Best at the US Open4R (2025)

Player vitals: US Open official player feed (usopen.org) and Tennis Abstract career match logs · as of 2026-08-30.

Career head-to-head: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-30.

The briefing

Storylines

  • A 1–1 rivalry split across hard courts: Munar won 6-3 7-6(5) at the Miami Masters in March 2025; Rinderknech won 6-2 2-6 7-5 at Metz in September 2022.
  • Munar came from two sets down to beat Terence Atmane 6-7(5) 3-6 6-1 7-6(4) 7-5 in the first round; Rinderknech lost the opening tiebreak to Sho Shimabukuro and won the next three sets.
  • Both men reached the Round of 16 here in 2025 — the best US Open result of either career.
  • Rinderknech carries the better career hard-court record, 87–90 to Munar's 68–91, on the surface that most rewards his height.

Head to head

One apiece, both on hard courts: Munar won 6-3 7-6(5) in the first round at Miami in March 2025; Rinderknech won 6-2 2-6 7-5 in the second round at Metz in September 2022.

Source: Tennis Abstract career match logs (tour-level) · as of 2026-08-30.

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 2026-08-30)

Weather: Rain shapes the opening days. Showers and thunderstorms stay possible through Sunday night under a low near 72°F. Monday is the driest day of the window — partly sunny, high near 77°F, a 20% shower chance before 5 p.m. — before showers return after 8 p.m. Tuesday is warmer and wetter: mostly cloudy near 82°F with a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly mid-afternoon and again overnight. Wednesday holds near 79°F on the same 50% odds, and Thursday is warmer still — partly sunny, 83°F, storms possible either side of the day. Ashe and Armstrong close their roofs; the field courts wait. (National Weather Service New York forecast, as of 2026-08-30)

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

Daniil Medvedev
Hugo Gaston
Aug 30–Sep 1
6-4 6-2 6-4
Sebastian Gorzny
Raphael Collignon
Aug 30–Sep 1
Jaume Munar
Terence Atmane
Aug 30–Sep 1
6-7(5) 3-6 6-1 7-6(4) 7-5
Arthur Rinderknech
Sho Shimabukuro
Aug 30–Sep 1
6-7(4) 6-2 7-6(4) 6-2

Round of 64

Sep 2–3
Arthur Rinderknech
Jaume Munar
Sep 2–3

Round of 32

Sep 4–5

Suggestions?

Spot a mistake — a wrong score, a result that’s gone stale, a bracket that doesn’t look right? Or do you just have a better idea for this page? Either way, I’d rather hear it than not. Send me a line — a sentence is plenty, and I’ll take it from there.