New York - 01/09

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Today is Tuesday, September 1st, in New York it's 2:30 AM and it's 21 degrees out. Okay, let's get into it.

On the menu today

• 🇺🇸 Venus Williams exits in the latest-starting match in US Open history
• 🇪🇸 Alcaraz returns after 139 days and gets past Safiullin in three sets
• 🇮🇹 Berrettini beats Wawrinka and closes out the Swiss star's Slam career
• 🇬🇷 Tsitsipas knocks out Fils, the tenth seed
• 🇮🇹 Mixed day for the Italians: Darderi through, Arnaldi, Cocciaretto and Cinà out
• 🇧🇾 Sabalenka, Swiatek, Shelton and Auger-Aliassime cruise through

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

🇺🇸 Venus Williams Exits At Two In The Morning

Sofia Kenin beat Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6(6) in a match that started at 12:13 AM and ended at 2:01 AM, the latest start time in US Open history: six minutes past the previous record, set by Sabalenka-Alexandrova in 2024. Both players had been waiting through the entirety of Djokovic-Navone, four hours and thirty-six minutes on Ashe, and at one point the match was moved to Louis Armstrong before that decision got reversed.

Williams, 46 years old and a wild card in her twenty-sixth appearance at Flushing Meadows, served for the second set and had the tiebreak in hand before losing it 8-6. "It's not ideal, I would have preferred something else," she said afterward, adding that finding your rhythm at one or two in the morning is a tricky exercise. The feeling lingers that on nights like this, the TV schedule decides more than it would ever admit.

WHAT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT:

🇪🇸 Alcaraz Rediscovers The Court

Carlos Alcaraz got past Roman Safiullin 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on his return after 139 days out, the layoff opened by the right wrist injury in April in Barcelona. The defending champion, seeded number 2, showed no sign of wrist trouble at any point in the match and kept all three sets on the same track.

A scoreline this tidy says little about how the wrist will hold up over five sets against an opponent who forces him to defend, but it says something about how Alcaraz managed the comeback: no experiments, no forcing the issue, just the minimum needed to get through. With Sinner out with his knee, the tournament is opening in a way nobody had factored in back at the start of August.

🇮🇹 Berrettini Sends Off Wawrinka

Matteo Berrettini eliminated Stan Wawrinka 7-6(4), 7-6(3), 6-0, closing out the Swiss player's final Slam match, a champion in New York back in 2016. The two tiebreaks kept the match alive for nearly two sets, then Wawrinka faded and the third set went 6-0.

Berrettini played the decisive points with the composure that's come and gone for him this season, and the two tiebreaks he won probably matter more than the final bagel. Emotionally, though, the match belonged to the other guy: Wawrinka leaves the Majors on the court where he built his most improbable win, and the crowd's reaction said more than the scoreline did.

🇬🇷 Tsitsipas Stops Fils

Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Arthur Fils, the tenth seed and Cincinnati champion, 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-1, 6-4. It's his first win over a top 20 player at the US Open.

The second-set tiebreak flipped everything: from there Fils stopped finding depth and Tsitsipas started dictating from the baseline with his forehand. For the Greek, it's the kind of result that, after months of losing matches like this, moves the needle more on morale than on the ranking. For Fils, the opposite question applies: how much a week like Cincinnati weighs on the legs arriving in New York eight days later.

🇮🇹 A Mixed Day For The Italians

Luciano Darderi got past Harry Wendelken 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5. Matteo Arnaldi lost to James Duckworth 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(8) after holding six set points in the fourth, Elisabetta Cocciaretto went out against Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-2, and Federico Cinà fell to Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-1, 6-0 after a rain delay broke his rhythm.

Arnaldi's match is the one that lingers: six chances to force a fifth set and a tiebreak lost 10-8 are the kind of detail that at a Slam turns into three completely different weeks on the calendar. Darderi won without being consistent, alternating solid sets with sloppy ones, and for a player still finding his footing on hard courts, that's already useful information.

🇧🇾 The Seeds Hold Firm

Aryna Sabalenka opened her title defense by beating Camila Osorio 6-2, 6-4, while Iga Swiatek dispatched Wang Xiyu, Karolina Muchova left Sinja Kraus with three games, and Linda Noskova got past Katie Volynets. On the men's side, Ben Shelton also came through, dropping the first set to Tallon Griekspoor before closing it out 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-2, and Felix Auger-Aliassime advanced past Rinky Hijikata in four.

After a Monday full of upsets in the men's draw, the day closed out as predictably as possible on both sides. Worth keeping an eye on that first set from Shelton, lost 1-6 on home soil and recovered right after, because over two weeks at a Slam that kind of start tends to show up again.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:

• Zverev vs Sonego - The last match of the night session on Ashe. Zverev is the top seed with Sinner out, and Sonego is coming off a season where he's already given players at that level trouble on hard courts.
• Cobolli vs Comesaña - At 5:00 PM Italian time on Armstrong. The number 5 seed leads the Italian contingent and faces an Argentine who's comfortable in long matches.
• Musetti vs Fery - On the Grandstand, not before 5:00 PM. Fery is unpredictable, and this draw gives the number 13 seed nothing for free.
• Gauff vs Sonmez - On Ashe not before 1:00 AM Italian time. Gauff comes in off the Cincinnati title, which makes the opener more interesting than her opponent's name suggests.
• Rybakina vs Frodin - The number 2 seed returns from the ankle issue that sidelined her at Cincinnati and draws Thea Frodin, a seventeen-year-old American wild card.
• Bellucci vs Piros and Passaro vs De Jong - From 5:00 PM on Court 10, two openers the Italians need to try to win.

Further reading

• US Open, Day 2: Berrettini beats Wawrinka, Darderi advances
• Venus Williams bows out of her 26th US Open with a 1st-round loss to Sofia Kenin
• Sabalenka kickstarts US Open three-peat bid as Fils crashes out
• US Open 2026: Tuesday, September 1st schedule and order of play with Cobolli and Sonego
• Musetti makes his debut against Arthur Fery on the Grandstand

Enjoy your breakfast and have a great day.

See you tomorrow at 8:30 with TIE-Breakfast