World number one Jannik Sinner opens his bid for back-to-back US Open titles on Tuesday, while former champions Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff launch their campaigns to reclaim the women’s crown at Flushing Meadows.
The 24-year-old Italian, top seed in New York, faces unseeded Czech Vit Kopriva in the day’s headline match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Sinner arrives as the season’s standout player, having won the Australian Open and Wimbledon and reaching the French Open final, where he fell to Carlos Alcaraz in a fifth-set tiebreak. Victory in New York would make him the first man to successfully defend the US Open since Roger Federer claimed the last of his five straight titles in 2008.
His preparation was disrupted last week when illness forced him to retire from the Cincinnati Open final against Alcaraz while trailing 5-0. Though he admitted he was “not 100 percent,” Sinner insisted he would be fully fit for Tuesday’s opener.
Last year’s US Open triumph came under the shadow of a doping controversy after he tested positive for an anabolic steroid at Indian Wells. Anti-doping authorities accepted the case was due to contamination, and Sinner served a three-month suspension earlier this year. The world number one has since sought to move on.
“I feel like it’s over,” Sinner said. “We are focusing on hard work again and trying to get better as an athlete. I’m very happy to be back here. The motivations are very high.”
On the women’s side, 2022 champion Swiatek begins against Colombia’s Emiliana Arango, fresh from winning the Cincinnati Open and Wimbledon in a season that has underlined her growing strength beyond clay.
Third seed Gauff, who lifted the title in New York last year, starts her defence in a night match against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.
Elsewhere, Alcaraz advanced to the second round on Monday with a straight-sets win over American Reilly Opelka, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.
