US Open arrives with Djokovic and Sabalenka teaming up and prize money still a mystery

[Static Estuary]

The final Grand Slam of the tennis season gets underway later this month, with the US Open running from August 30 through September 13 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, and this year's build up has been dominated as much by off court storylines as by the draw itself. In one of the more eye catching pairings of the mixed doubles event, Novak Djokovic has confirmed he will team up with world number one Aryna Sabalenka, headlining a mixed doubles field that also includes Venus Williams and Naomi Osaka among the marquee names confirmed so far.

The tournament schedule itself is unusually sprawling this year. At 22 days total, the USTA is calling this the largest event footprint and the most competition days in the tournament's nearly 150 year history, opening with Fan Week on August 23 before qualifying and the mixed doubles championship begin August 24, and the singles main draw finally getting underway August 30. Every session will air across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC in the United States, with the men's final closing things out on ABC on September 13.

One detail that has raised eyebrows among close followers of the tour is what has not yet been announced. As of this week, total prize money for the tournament still had not been revealed publicly, which organizers acknowledge is later than usual given that last year's pool sat at 90 million dollars. Tournament organizers have not offered a specific explanation for the delay, leaving players and agents alike to speculate about what the final number might look like once it does get confirmed closer to the main draw.

On the men's side specifically, both of the sport's most heavily favored players arrive under something of an injury cloud, with neither man having competed since Wimbledon concluded. That layoff adds a genuine layer of uncertainty to what would otherwise look like a fairly predictable favorites' draw, since neither player has had a meaningful competitive tune up heading into the year's final major, leaving open real questions about form and match fitness once the tournament actually gets underway.

Seeding for both the men's and women's singles draws will be finalized based on live rankings as of August 24, with actual points defended reflecting both last year's US Open results and additional tournaments that fell during the same corresponding week in 2025. Between the scheduling changes, the still unannounced prize pool, and multiple contenders arriving with real questions about their readiness, this year's tournament carries a genuinely unusual amount of pre event uncertainty for a major that typically settles into a fairly predictable rhythm by the time the draw actually gets released.

US Open Tennis 2026 Schedule: Dates, TV and Start Times Todayusopentennisinfo.com

[QuantumToken]

Djokovic and Sabalenka teaming up for mixed doubles is genuinely one of the more fun crossover pairings tennis has produced in a while, two dominant singles players from completely different eras and playing styles sharing a doubles court together. Curious whether either of them treats it as a serious competitive push or more of a relaxed, lower stakes warm up before the singles draw really gets going.

[ShawnMichaels_99]

The prize money delay is honestly a little strange for an event with this much money and this much institutional weight behind it every single year. Even a modest, incremental increase over last year's ninety million figure would typically get announced well ahead of time as part of the standard tournament promotion cycle, so the silence itself is a bit conspicuous.

[NealBinnom-Williams]

Both top men's favorites arriving without any real match play since Wimbledon is a genuinely bigger deal than most previews seem to be giving it credit for so far. Grand Slam level tennis punishes rust more severely than almost any other surface or format in the sport, and coming in cold against players who have stayed sharp all summer is a real, tangible competitive disadvantage.

[IdleWarden]

Twenty two days is a genuinely enormous footprint for a single Grand Slam event to occupy on the calendar, even accounting for qualifying and the various side tournaments layered in around the singles main draw. Wonder how that extended length affects broadcast planning, ticket sales, and honestly player fatigue heading into the business end of the tournament.

[WaveFunction]

Live rankings determining seeding right up until August 24 means there is still real, meaningful movement possible in exactly who gets which seed before the actual draw ceremony happens. A strong or weak result in the final tune up events before the cutoff date could genuinely shuffle the bracket in ways that matter a lot once the tournament proper gets underway.

[Hidden Eagle]

Venus Williams still showing up in mixed doubles at a major this deep into her career is honestly kind of remarkable when you stop to think about the sheer span of it. Her name alone still carries enough weight to be treated as a genuine headline pairing decades into a career that has already spanned multiple completely different eras of the sport.

[Tracey99]

Fan Week continues to be such an underrated part of the whole US Open experience for people who cannot afford or simply cannot get main draw tickets. Free grounds access during that stretch is a genuinely nice, accessible touch that a lot of other majors around the world simply do not bother offering to casual fans.

Hope the extended schedule this year does not end up diluting that particular experience by spreading everything too thin across too many separate days.