The US Open is down to its last eight singles players. The women’s semifinals are played on Thursday night and the men’s on Friday, all on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. The four women left are the top four seeds, which has happened only once before at this tournament in the Open Era, and the men’s draw has guaranteed an American finalist. Here is the line-up, the confirmed order of play, and where to watch.
The semifinals
Women’s singles — Thursday, 10 September
- 7 p.m. — [1] Aryna Sabalenka vs [3] Jessica Pegula
- Followed by — [2] Elena Rybakina vs [4] Coco Gauff
Men’s singles — Friday, 11 September
- 3 p.m. — [1] Alexander Zverev vs Karen Khachanov
- Not before 7 p.m. — [8] Ben Shelton vs [11] Frances Tiafoe
Times are Eastern. Second matches are scheduled to follow the first or “not before” the listed time, and move with the length of the match ahead of them.
Thursday: Sabalenka vs Pegula, Gauff vs Rybakina
Sabalenka against Pegula is a rematch of the 2024 final, which Sabalenka won 7-5, 7-5. She is the two-time defending champion and would be the first woman since Serena Williams in 2012 to 2014 to win three US Open titles in a row. Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 9-4. She reached the last four by beating the Wimbledon champion, Linda Noskova, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 on Tuesday; Pegula came from a set down to beat Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 the same night.
Rybakina, the Australian Open champion, becomes world No. 1 on Monday whatever happens this week. She came from a set down to beat Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday, and Gauff saved two match points in a second-set tiebreak against Mirra Andreeva before winning 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2. Their head-to-head is 1-1, and Rybakina won the most recent meeting, in the Toronto semifinals last month.
The only previous US Open in the Open Era with the top four seeds in the women’s semifinals was 1975, when Chris Evert, Virginia Wade, Martina Navratilova and Evonne Goolagong Cawley made up the last four. According to the WTA, it has not happened at any major since Wimbledon in 2009.
Thursday is also the tournament’s Open for All Day, with free grounds admission. The Arthur Ashe evening session carrying the semifinals is ticketed separately.
Friday: Zverev vs Khachanov, Shelton vs Tiafoe
Zverev beat Botic van de Zandschulp 6-2, 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday night and, by the ATP’s count, became the ninth man in the Open Era to reach the semifinals at all four majors in one season. He reached the last four at the Australian Open, won Roland Garros for his first major title and lost the Wimbledon final to Jannik Sinner. His 23 major match wins this year are the most by a German man in a season, one more than Boris Becker in 1989. Zverev leads Khachanov 6-3, a record that includes the Tokyo Olympic gold-medal match in 2021.
Khachanov arrived in New York ranked No. 50, his lowest ranking since May 2017, with a 16-18 record for the season. He has since beaten third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round and 14th seed Learner Tien in five sets in the fourth, and reached his third major semifinal on Wednesday when 28th seed Alexander Blockx retired trailing 6-2, 7-5, 3-2. Blockx, the first Belgian man to reach a US Open quarterfinal, had played through a rib injury in the previous round and took medical timeouts for upper-body pain before stopping. Khachanov’s other major semifinals came at the 2022 US Open and the 2023 Australian Open.
The late match is an all-American semifinal, so an American man will play a major final for the first time since Taylor Fritz reached the 2024 US Open final. Tiafoe played in that year’s all-American semifinal too, and lost it to Fritz in five sets. Shelton leads the head-to-head 3-1, and they have split two meetings in New York: Shelton won their 2023 quarterfinal in four sets and Tiafoe their 2024 third-round match in five. Their most recent meeting went to Shelton, 7-6(2), 6-4, in the Washington quarterfinals last year.
Both come off five-set quarterfinals. Tiafoe came from two sets down to beat Alex Michelsen on Tuesday. Shelton beat the defending champion, Carlos Alcaraz, in a match that finished at 3:33 a.m. on Wednesday, the latest finish in the tournament’s history.
The order of play puts the two Tuesday winners last. That gives them an extra session of rest before Friday, and gives whichever of them wins less time than Zverev or Khachanov before Sunday’s final. Zverev, who played Wednesday’s night match, was asked about it after his quarterfinal and, according to the French outlet We Love Tennis, said he found it strange for players who had two days off to follow him on court, and that he had not seen it in 12 years on tour.
How to watch
In the United States, the tournament is on ESPN, with ABC carrying finals-weekend coverage, and streaming through ESPN’s subscription service. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it is on Sky Sports Tennis and NOW. Broadcast rights vary by territory, and the tournament’s official site lists the rights holder for each country.
The finals
The women’s final is Saturday, 12 September, at 4 p.m. Eastern, and the men’s final is Sunday, 13 September, at 2 p.m.
Related reading
- Shelton Held Every Game in the Fifth, and Ended the Title Defense at 3:33 a.m.
- Michelsen Had Not Lost a Set All Tournament, and Then Lost Three in a Row
- Zheng Double-Faulted at 4-4, and Rybakina Became World No. 1
- Tennis Player Profiles — ATP and WTA Player Index
