The US Open, whose main draw starts this Sunday and concludes on Sunday, September 7 (the qualifying rounds began Monday and ends today) will be two weeks of highly intense and legacy-building tennis held at the sprawling and spectacular USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.
It is one of the world’s premier annual sporting and social events, and a revenue-generating behemoth for New York City. The economic impact of last year’s tournament, reported by many media sources, was roughly $1.2 billion.
The total prize money has grown $15 million over last year’s $75 million purse, which was a record for the most in tennis history. This year, a whopping $90 million is up for grabs. The men’s and women’s singles winners will bag a massive $5 million each, with the runners up banking $2.5 million.
The headliners of the 128 players each on both the men’s and women’s side all have US Open titles on their resumes. For the men, defending champion Jannik Sinner and 2022 champion Carlos Alcaraz will continue a rivalry that one day may be viewed as one of the best of all time. They put on a mesmerizing show in an epic championship match at the French Open in May.
Alcaraz emerged victorious in the five setter (4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6) in the longest French Open ever, lasting a grueling five hours and 29 minutes. It was the second longest major final behind Rafael Nadal’s and Novak Djokovic’s marathon 2012 Australian Open, which went five hours and 53 minutes with Djokovic besting Nadal (5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5). Djokovic, the 2023 US Open champion, who holds the record for most major singles titles in tennis history at 24, will be pursuing his fifth US Open title. He is seeded No. 7 going into the tournament with Sinner, Alacaraz, Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz and Jack Draper the top five in succession.
The women’s draw will be led by last year’s titlist and world’s No. 1 ranked Aryna Sabalenka and No. 2 Coco Gauff, the 2023 tournament champion. Gauff defeated Sabalenka at the French Open in May 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 to claim her second career Grand Slam. They will be joined by a formidable group that includes No. 3 seed Iga Swiatek, a six-time major winner — including the 2022 US Open winner and this year’s Wimbledon — along with No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula and No. 5 Mirra Andreeva.