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Welcome to the U.S. Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On day three, a court assignment told a story, the outside courts were the big ticket, and seeds held firm.
What Stefanos Tsitsipas’ court assignment said about his season
Fresh from his Court 6 allocation in the first round of the French Open, two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas was back in the outer reaches of the U.S. Open on Tuesday.
It was Court 7 this time for the Greek, who has fallen on harder times this year, dropping to No. 28 in the rankings amid an ongoing back injury. Court allocations tend to be a good indication of where a player is at, and in Tsitsipas’ case, they are a fair reflection of his decline from Grand Slam contender to forgotten man.
They also matter to players: witness Holger Rune pointedly tweeting a map showing the way to Court 5 when he was scheduled there two years ago.
As it turned out, though, both the vibe on Court 7 and Tsitsipas’ performance exceeded expectations. Partly because of a lack of action elsewhere, with the two main stadiums empty, Tsitsipas’ match against France’s Alexandre Müller became one of the places to be at Flushing Meadows yesterday. There were long queues to get in, and after dropping the first set, Tsitsipas belatedly started to feed off the crowd’s energy.
“My mind was traveling a little bit in the beginning, let’s just say it was a lack of confidence, not having played enough lately, and not knowing where my level stands at,” he said in a news conference afterwards.
During the second and third sets, he was spearing backhand winners down the line and beginning to look a bit more like the Tsitsipas of old. After a late wobble, he held his nerve for a 4-6, 6-0, 6-1, 7-6(5) victory.
It’s early days, but at least Tsitsipas is making a bit of progress. The heady heights of a show court could await.
Charlie Eccleshare
How the outside courts took center stage
As can happen in the early stages of Grand Slams, the schedule on the two biggest stadiums led to some short-lived tennis on Tuesday. On Arthur Ashe Stadium, Wimbledon champion Iga Świątek and defending U.S. Open men’s champion Jannik Sinner eased through their matches in quick time. Świątek dispatched Colombian world No. 84 Emiliana Arango 6-1, 6-2 in an hour flat, while Sinner needed 97 minutes to get past world No. 89 Vit Kopřiva 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.
Play started on Arthur Ashe at 11:30 a.m., so by 2:30 p.m., the stadium was facing four and a half hours of dead air before the night session began at 7 p.m. Louis Armstrong Stadium faced a similar issue, and with two show courts with a combined capacity of over 38,000 empty, all those day session tickets spilled out onto the grounds in search of tennis. Tournament organizers moved No. 21 seed Linda Nosková’s match against Dalma Gálfi to Ashe to compensate, but a 7-5, 6-4 win for the Czech could only do so much.
So fans packed onto stairwells, gangways and open areas, searching for a glimpse of the action. Courts 4, 5, and 6, which sit side by side with gangways between 4 and 5 and 5 and 6, became the place to be, along with Tsitsipas’ assignment on 7. Lines snaked around every outside court, contrasting sharply with the ones only in use for practice, sparsely and quietly populated with players honing their skills for the bigger stages. Ajla Tomljanović prepared for her match against Coco Gauff on Arthur Ashe at 7 p.m. by hitting smashes with Kateřina Siniaková, one of the great doubles players, in relative calm. Around them, the Billie Jean King Tennis Center was abuzz, while its two grandest arenas lay silent.
Crowds packed the outside courts at the U.S. Open on the final day of first-round matches. (Al Bello / Getty Images)
James Hansen
Other notable results on day 3:
- Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova also cruised, getting past Kimberly Birrell of Australia 6-3, 6-2.
- Men’s No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev eased past Alejandro Tabilo of Chile 6-2, 7-6(4), 6-4. When a player says they’re not feeling ideal in their pre-match interview, the result rarely goes their way.
- And Coco Gauff survived a close-run contest with Tomljanović 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 on a night when her new serve was overshadowed by the old foundations of her game.
Shot of the day
Vintage Coco Gauff on Arthur Ashe Stadium:
Up next:
🎾 Emma Raducanu vs. Janice Tjen (Q)
11 a.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+
The Cinderella story is one of the most potent — and misleading — mythologies in tennis, and this second-round matchup encompasses its meaning. When Raducanu entered the U.S. Open in 2021 as a qualifier, she had played 89 professional matches, winning 69. But the Covid-19 pandemic, which heavily restricted professional tennis in 2020, meant she came to New York feeling like more of a surprise than she was. Then she won the title. In Tjen, she faces an opponent who also embodies the contradiction. Appearing seemingly out of nowhere on the biggest stage in the sport, Tjen has, in fact, won 70 of her 79 matches in the past 52 weeks.
🎾 João Fonseca vs. Tomáš Macháč (21)
~1:30 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+
A Grandstand assignment for Fonseca, one of the hottest properties in the sport. He brings crowds wherever he goes, with his Brazilian faithful packing stadiums and creating a raucous atmosphere no matter the opponent. Macháč, a huge talent prone to his body letting him down, is an enticing opponent. Expect fireworks.
🎾 Mattia Bellucci vs. Carlos Alcaraz (2)
7 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+
Bellucci, a 24-year-old ponytailed Italian with a swashbuckling game, is the kind of opponent Alcaraz will either put to the sword or misread. One of the most fascinating quirks of Alcaraz’s game is how his style forces opponents to find their end-range. They have to hit ludicrous winners on the run and engage in cat-and-mouse dances at the net to beat him, which is hard. But that kind of explosive ability is something just about every professional tennis player can conjure up once in a while; it’s rally tolerance and consistency that are harder to find. If Bellucci makes some wonder shots and his confidence surges, Alcaraz may find himself in the middle of a tricky test.
🎾 Iva Jović vs. Jasmine Paolini (7)
7 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN+
Jović, 17, is back in familiar U.S. Open territory: playing a tough seed in a second-round match. The Californian took the first set against Ekaterina Alexandrova at last year’s tournament and had her vastly more experienced Russian opponent on the ropes on several occasions before eventually succumbing. Paolini, who is quietly in good form after her run to the Cincinnati Open final, is an even tougher assignment, but Jović will have the New York crowd on her side.
U.S. Open men’s draw 2025
U.S. Open women’s draw 2025
Tell us what you noticed on the third day…
(Top photo of Stefanos Tsitsipas: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
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