Word up and welcome to the US Open 2026 – day nine!
We begin on Armstrong with Mirra Andreeva, now a grand slam champion so spieling with house money … except not spieling with house money at all because she’s a killer with the potential to win multiple. She won’t, though, find things easy against Anastasia Potapova, who binned Coco Gauff in Paris and Amanda Anisimova in the last round here. If her high-risk, high-reward style is as grooved now as then, we’re in for a treat.
Opening up on Ashe, half an hour later, we’ve Iga Swiatek, winner in 2022. Yet to lose a set in the competition, she might’ve just found her mislaid mojo, but Qinwen Zheng will be full of confidence having come back from 0-5 down in the third set to get rid of Madison Keys.
Our likeliest match of the day comes in the second wave of singles contests, with Naomi Osaka, twice a winner of this competition, meeting the Aussie Open champ and potential world no 1, Elena Rybakina. It’s been a while since Osaka threatened to add to her four majors, but her ability is such that, at some point, she’ll surely go deep and, even if she doesn’t, remains more than capable of beating anyone at any time.
As for the men’s competition, I can’t wait to see how Alexander Blockx, the 21-year-old Belgian, gets on in the biggest match of his career so far. He dealt harshly with Flavio Cobolli in round three, coming from a set down to power home 3, 0 and 3, and will view Francisco Cerundolo as a very beatable opponent.
Then, later in the day, Arthur Gea – also 21 – who first caught our attention by beating Jiri Lehecka in Melbourne, meets Botic van der Zandschulp, whose giant serve has already helped him sort two seeds in Zizou Bergs and Alex de Minaur. That one’s on Grandstand while, on Armstrong, Karen Khachanov, powerful but lacking hands and agility, faces his inverse, Learner Tien, lacking power but with touch and speed. It is not at all easy to pick winners, but luckily we don’t have to – we can simply immerse and enjoy.
Let’s go!
