The 2026 US Open singles draws are made Thursday, and the bracket that comes out of the ceremony will be built on a hierarchy that the past three weeks have already begun to argue with.
Both singles fields hold 128 players, and the top 32 in each are seeded off the ATP and WTA rankings published Monday, Aug. 24. That date is the one that matters. The seedings were fixed before a competitive singles point had been played in New York, and they will not move again regardless of what happens in qualifying this week. Main-draw play begins Sunday, Aug. 30. The women’s final is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 12, the men’s for Sunday, Sept. 13.
The man at the top of the men’s sheet is not the world No. 1. Alexander Zverev is the No. 1 seed because Jannik Sinner withdrew with a right knee injury, having held the ranking and won Wimbledon in July. Zverev is the reigning Roland Garros champion, but he was gone before the quarterfinals in Cincinnati, and his elevation to the top line is arithmetic rather than momentum.
Carlos Alcaraz is seeded second, and that is the more interesting number on the page. He is the defending champion and has not played a competitive singles match since April, when a right wrist injury cut short his clay season. He held the No. 2 ranking throughout the absence, which is what earns him the seed. He arrives without a tune-up event, having used this week’s mixed doubles championship as his only competitive tennis in four months.
Felix Auger-Aliassime is seeded third and Novak Djokovic fourth. Flavio Cobolli, Alex de Minaur, Daniil Medvedev, Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz and Arthur Fils complete the top 10, with Fils arriving on the back of his first Masters 1000 title. Shelton and Fritz give the American men two seeds inside the top 10.
The women’s draw carries a complication the men’s does not. Aryna Sabalenka is the No. 1 seed and has won the title in each of the last two years. Elena Rybakina is seeded second, and has not appeared on a practice court at Flushing Meadows since retiring from her Cincinnati quarterfinal. Neither the player nor her team has addressed her singles participation. A seed is held until it is formally given up, so the No. 2 line in the women’s draw will be filled on Thursday whether or not the player behind it plays on Sunday.
Behind them sit Jessica Pegula at No. 3 and Coco Gauff at No. 4, the latter arriving from a second Cincinnati title. Mirra Andreeva, Linda Noskova, Karolina Muchova, Iga Swiatek, Elina Svitolina and Amanda Anisimova round out the top 10, putting three American women among the top 10 seeds. Alex Eala is seeded 17th.
The shape of the season explains why this draw looks as open as it does. Six different players have won the six major singles titles contested in 2026: Alcaraz and Rybakina in Melbourne, Zverev and Andreeva at Roland Garros, Sinner and Noskova at Wimbledon. Two of those women, the reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champions, are seeded outside the top four here. No man in the top six arrives in New York on a winning streak.
What the ceremony settles is narrower than it is often made to sound. Seeds are distributed so that no two can meet before the third round, which means the top 32 in each draw are guaranteed unseeded opposition in the first two rounds. It does not settle who those opponents are in every case: 16 men and 16 women come through qualifying this week, and their places go into the draw as blanks to be filled once the last round is played. Wild cards, late withdrawals and the lucky losers who replace them can still move names around after Thursday.
The draw is conducted at the site and is customarily held around midday. It falls inside Fan Week, which runs through Saturday and carries free grounds admission, so the bracket will be published to a site already full of spectators watching qualifiers fight for the places it leaves open.
This page will carry the full men’s and women’s draws, quarter-by-quarter, once they are released.
