The 2026 US Open is the 146th edition of tennis’s oldest continuously held Grand Slam, and the fourth and final major of the year. It runs across late August through early September 2026 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York. This is an editorial guide – the venue, the format, the defending champions and how to follow it in India – with no tips, odds or predictions, just the facts you need.
Tournament status: the 2026 US Open runs from late August to the finals on 12 and 13 September at Flushing Meadows. This guide covers the format, the venue and how to follow it from India rather than live scores.
Key facts at a glance
| Detail | 2026 US Open |
|---|---|
| Edition | 146th |
| Dates | Late August – early September 2026 (confirm on the official schedule) |
| Format | Sunday start (adopted 2025) – two weeks of play |
| Venue | USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, New York |
| Main court | Arthur Ashe Stadium (23,771 seats, retractable roof) |
| Surface | Laykold hardcourt |
| Defending men’s singles champion | Carlos Alcaraz (2025) |
| Defending women’s singles champion | Aryna Sabalenka (2025) |
| Broadcast in India | Star Sports (per the tournament’s international listings) |
The venue: Flushing Meadows
The US Open has been held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center since 1978. The complex has 22 outdoor courts, with four “show courts”: Arthur Ashe Stadium (the main court, 23,771 seats, retractable roof added in 2016), Louis Armstrong Stadium (14,061 seats, with a retractable roof of its own), the 8,125-seat Grandstand, and Court 17, nicknamed “The Pit” because the playing surface is sunk 8 feet into the ground. All courts are illuminated, which is what allows the tournament’s famous night sessions.
The complex was renamed after Billie Jean King in 2006 – a four-time US Open singles champion and one of the sport’s most important pioneers.
Format
The US Open runs the standard Grand Slam programme:
- Men’s singles – 128-player main draw, best-of-five sets throughout.
- Women’s singles – 128-player main draw, best-of-three sets.
- Men’s and women’s doubles – 64-team draws.
- Mixed doubles – 16-team draw, plus junior, senior and wheelchair events.
- Tiebreakers – since 2022, if the deciding set reaches 6-6, an extended tiebreak is played (first to ten points, win by two).
Since 2025 the tournament has started on a Sunday rather than the traditional Monday, making Wimbledon the only remaining major to begin on a Monday. Since 2018, US Open matches use a 25-second shot clock between points, and since 2021 all line calls are made electronically by Hawk-Eye Live.
Defending champions
Carlos Alcaraz won the 2025 men’s singles final, defeating Jannik Sinner 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. Aryna Sabalenka won the women’s singles, beating Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6(3). In doubles, Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos took the men’s title; Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe won the women’s; and Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori took the mixed.
Prize money
The US Open is the richest tennis tournament in the world. The 2025 prize pool was a record US$90 million, with the singles champions receiving US$5 million each. The 2026 figures are typically announced in the weeks before the tournament.
How to follow the US Open in India
The US Open is broadcast in India on Star Sports, per the tournament’s international listings, with confirmation and channel details published closer to the start. Live scores, draws and streaming details are available on the official USOpen.org and USTA.com sites.
One practical note for fans in India: US Open matches are played in New York time. Day sessions typically start around late evening IST and night sessions run through to early morning, so plan accordingly if you want to catch specific matches live. For a broader picture of the tennis calendar and the four majors, see our tennis coverage page.
A bit of history
The US Open began in 1881 as the U.S. National Championships, played on grass at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island. It moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York, in 1915, and to its current Flushing Meadows home in 1978. It is the only Grand Slam that has been played every year since its inception – it was not cancelled by either World War, and it was the first major to award equal prize money to men and women (1973) and to introduce a tiebreaker to decide sets (1970).
Record holders: on the men’s side, Richard Sears, William Larned and Bill Tilden share the amateur-era record of seven singles titles; in the Open Era, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer have five each. On the women’s side, Molla Mallory holds the all-time record with eight singles titles; Chris Evert and Serena Williams share the Open-Era record of six.
The show courts, one by one
Flushing Meadows is the largest venue in professional tennis, and knowing the courts helps you understand the tournament’s rhythm. The complex has 22 outdoor courts in total, of which four are designated show courts.
| Court | Capacity | Opened | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arthur Ashe Stadium | 23,771 | 1997 | Main court; retractable roof added 2016 at a cost of about US$180m |
| Louis Armstrong Stadium | 14,061 | 2018 | Second show court; lower tier ticketed, upper tier general admission |
| Grandstand | 8,125 | 2016 | Southwest corner of the grounds |
| Court 17 | 2,800 | 2011 | Nicknamed ‘The Pit’ — the playing surface sits 8 feet below ground level |
Every court at the US Open is floodlit, which is what makes the tournament’s night sessions possible — and those night sessions on Arthur Ashe are, for many players, the loudest and most intimidating environment in the sport. The venue was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in 2006, honouring a four-time US Open singles champion who did as much as anyone to build the professional women’s game.
What makes the US Open different from the other three majors
Each Grand Slam has its own character, and the differences are more than cosmetic.
| Australian Open | French Open | Wimbledon | US Open | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surface | Hard (GreenSet) | Clay | Grass | Hard (Laykold) |
| Month | January | May–June | June–July | Aug–Sept |
| Starts on | Sunday | Sunday | Monday | Sunday |
| Final-set tiebreak | 10-point at 6–6 | 10-point at 6–6 | 10-point at 6–6 | 10-point at 6–6 |
The US Open’s hardcourt is generally rated medium-fast, which rewards big serving and aggressive baseline play more than the slower clay of Roland-Garros. Combine that with the humid late-summer New York conditions, the night sessions and the famously vocal crowd, and you get the major most likely to produce upsets and marathon matches. It has also been the sport’s most consistent innovator: first to use a tiebreaker (1970), first to award equal prize money to men and women (1973), first to adopt instant replay (2006), first with a shot clock (2018), and the second to move to fully electronic line calling (2021).
Records worth knowing
The US Open is the oldest of the four majors and its record book stretches back to 1881.
- Most men’s singles titles: Richard Sears, William Larned and Bill Tilden share the all-time record with seven each, all in the amateur era. In the Open Era, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer have five apiece.
- Most women’s singles titles: Molla Mallory holds the all-time record with eight. Chris Evert and Serena Williams share the Open Era record with six each.
- Most consecutive men’s titles: Roger Federer won five in a row from 2004 to 2008 — the Open Era record.
- Youngest champions: Pete Sampras at 19 years and 1 month (1990); Tracy Austin at 16 years and 8 months (1979).
- Notable unseeded winners: Andre Agassi in 1994, and Emma Raducanu in 2021 — still the only qualifier ever to win a major title.
Following the US Open from India
New York runs 9 hours 30 minutes behind IST during the tournament, which makes the US Open the most demanding major for Indian viewers. Here is roughly how the sessions translate:
| Session | New York start | Approx. IST |
|---|---|---|
| Day session | 11:00 AM ET | 8:30 PM IST (same day) |
| Arthur Ashe day session | 12:00 PM ET | 9:30 PM IST |
| Night session | 7:00 PM ET | 4:30 AM IST (next day) |
The practical read: day sessions land in Indian prime time, which is genuinely convenient, while the marquee night-session matches on Arthur Ashe run into the early hours in India. If you only want to watch a handful of matches live, the day sessions are the sensible choice, and the finals weekend is worth planning around. The US Open is listed on Star Sports for the Indian subcontinent per the tournament’s international broadcast schedule; confirm current listings closer to the event. USOpen.org carries live scores, draws and radio coverage.
How the tournament grew
The US Open began in August 1881 at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island, then a men’s-only event on grass. The first women’s national singles championship followed in 1887 at the Philadelphia Cricket Club. In 1915 the championships moved to the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, after a contentious vote among players — 128 in favour, 119 against — that argued New York was where the sport’s audience actually was.
The tournament stayed at Forest Hills until 1978, briefly switching from grass to clay in 1975 before moving to the newly built National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows and to hardcourts. Jimmy Connors remains the only player to have won US Open singles titles on all three surfaces. The event has been played every single year since 1881 — uninterrupted by either World War or by the 2020 pandemic, when it was staged without spectators.
Attendance has grown sharply in recent years: the 2025 tournament drew a record 1,144,562 spectators, having passed a million for the first time in 2024. Prize money has followed the same curve, reaching a record US$90 million in 2025 with US$5 million to each singles champion — the largest purse in tennis.
The road to the title: how the draw works
A Grand Slam draw is a 128-player bracket, which means the champion wins seven matches across two weeks. Understanding the structure makes the tournament far easier to follow.
| Round | Players remaining | Typically played |
|---|---|---|
| First round | 128 | Days 1–3 |
| Second round | 64 | Days 3–5 |
| Third round | 32 | Days 5–6 |
| Fourth round | 16 | Days 7–8 |
| Quarter-finals | 8 | Days 9–10 |
| Semi-finals | 4 | Days 11–12 |
| Final | 2 | Final weekend |
The top 32 players are seeded, which spreads the strongest names across the bracket so they cannot meet before the third round. Beyond the main draw there is a 128-player qualifying event, from which 16 players earn places in the main draw. Emma Raducanu’s 2021 title, won from qualifying, remains the only time anyone has come through that route to win a major.
Ranking points follow the same ladder: 2,000 to the singles champion, 1,300 to the runner-up, and so on down to 10 points for a first-round loss. Those points are a big part of why players target the majors above almost everything else — a single deep run at a Slam can be worth more than an entire season of smaller tournaments.
What to watch for at Flushing Meadows
A few things reliably shape the tournament, and they are worth knowing before the first ball is struck.
- The conditions. Late-summer New York is hot and humid in the first week, often cooling noticeably by the second. Players who handle heat and long rallies tend to survive the opening rounds.
- The night sessions. Arthur Ashe under lights is a genuinely different tournament — louder, later, and historically kinder to players who feed off atmosphere.
- The roof. Since 2016, rain no longer stops play on the main court, which ended the run of five consecutive Monday men’s finals between 2008 and 2012.
- The surface speed. Laykold is rated medium-fast, rewarding first-strike tennis and big serving more than the slower European clay season that precedes it.
Want all four majors in one place? Our Grand Slam calendar covers dates, surfaces and IST timings for the whole season.
This is an editorial guide – schedule, teams and venues – and does not offer betting tips, odds or predictions. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over; please play responsibly and set your own limits. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state – check the rules where you live. Fixtures and timings can change; always confirm against the official tournament schedule.