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Sports · US Open 2026 · Men's Singles · Round of 64
Valentin Vacherot vs 
Kamil Majchrzak
Round of 64
Watch: ESPN · ESPN2 · ABC · ESPN app
My pick: Valentin Vacherot to advance · locked 2026-08-31 17:45 UTCPrediction
Vacherot, narrowly, and on the evidence of Monday rather than the season. The 22nd seed spent 1 hour 54 minutes beating Aleksandar Kovacevic 6-2 6-3 7-5 on Court 11 without conceding a single break point — fifteen holds, fourteen aces, 90% of his first-serve points won — which is the version of him that won Shanghai and not the version that had lost four in a row since July. Majchrzak was every bit as tidy on Sunday: 6-3 6-3 6-3 past Hamad Medjedovic in 1 hour 41 minutes on Court 12, thirteen aces, 84% behind the first serve, and fifteen unforced errors to Medjedovic's 38. The gap is real but small. Vacherot is No. 23 to Majchrzak's No. 73 and the ratings put it around 61–39, but the Pole's 66–60 career hard-court record is more than twice the volume of Vacherot's 29–17, and he reached the third round here a year ago. They have never played. Expect the serve to settle it and expect at least one set to go the distance.
The case for Valentin Vacherot
61% to winVacherot is the seed, the higher-ranked player and the one who has just produced the cleaner match: no break points faced across fifteen service games, 21 unforced errors to Kovacevic's 38, 96 points to 69. He is 6′4″ and serving at a level that made an entire match one-directional. Beating Kovacevic was also his first US Open win, which removes the one thing that could have been said about him here.
The case for Kamil Majchrzak
39% to winMajchrzak has done this before at this tournament — third round in 2025 — and his own opener was a 6-3 6-3 6-3 with thirteen aces and only fifteen unforced errors, which is at least as good a night's work. His career hard-court record, 66–60, dwarfs Vacherot's 29–17: the Monegasque's ranking is built on a very short, very steep run, and Majchrzak has spent seven more years learning how to win matches like this one. At No. 73 he is also the sort of opponent a first-time seed is expected to beat and often does not.
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
Valentin VacherotKamil MajchrzakPlayer 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
- Vacherot beat Kovacevic without facing a break point — fifteen holds, fourteen aces, 90% of first-serve points won — for his first US Open win.
- It was also his first win of any kind since July, after four straight defeats.
- Majchrzak reached the third round here in 2025 and opened this one 6-3 6-3 6-3 over Hamad Medjedovic in 1 hour 41 minutes.
- First meeting: the two have never played at tour level.
- Career hard-court records: Majchrzak 66–60, Vacherot 29–17 — the seed has played less than half as much tennis on the surface.
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 64
Valentin VacherotKamil MajchrzakRound of 32