U.S. Open men’s singles draw: Sinner, Alcaraz could meet in semifinals

The U.S. Open does not televise a draw ceremony, but the singles draws were revealed on Thursday afternoon at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

On the men’s singles side, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 3 Carlos are in the top half and therefore could go head-to-head in the semifinals. That leaves Djokovic alone–relatively speaking–in the bottom half.

In fact, the draws for both Sinner and Alcaraz are bad all around. The Italian could face Alex Michelsen in round two, Tommy Paul in round four, and Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals. Moreover, Sinner has been plagued by a hip injury this summer and now he has to deal with a steroid controversy that exploded earlier this week. As for Alcaraz, he could go up against Denis Shapovalov, Jack Draper, and Sebastian Korda from the second through fourth rounds.

At the bottom of the bracket, Djokovic could run into either Ben Shelton or Frances Tiafoe in the last 16, Andrey Rublev in the quarters, and Alexander Zverev in the semis. Jan-Lennard Struff is a possible second-round foe for the 37-year-old Serb.

If the seeds hold to form, quarterfinal matches would be Sinner vs. Medvedev, Alcaraz vs. Hubert Hurkacz, Zverev vs. Casper Ruud, and Djokovic vs. Rublev.

Among the notable first-round matchups are Zverev vs. Emil Ruusuvuori, Draper vs. Zhizhen Zhang, Shelton vs. Dominic Thiem, Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. Jakub Mensik, Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Thanasi Kokkinakis, Alexander Bublik vs. Jerry Shang, Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, and Holger Rune vs. Brandon Nakashima.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.