NEW YORK — Carlos Alcaraz will begin his bid to repeat as the U.S. Open men’s singles champion against an opponent who made a strong run at Wimbledon while the Spaniard was sidelined with an injury.
Along with some interesting opening-round matches, the draws for men’s and women’s singles Thursday delivered one “what could have been” possibility: Had Serena Williams decided to play, there could have been a Williams sisters showdown in the first round.
When older sister Venus Williams was given a wild card into the event at 46, the U.S. Tennis Association initially held one spot, which surely would have gone to Serena if the six-time U.S. Open champion wanted to play after returning to tennis for the first time since 2022. When the 44-year-old decided to compete only in doubles, the USTA awarded that last wild card over the weekend to American player Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion.
On Thursday, Venus and Kenin were randomly drawn to face each other.
Main draw play at the final Grand Slam tournament of the season begins Sunday.
Alcaraz is the No. 2 seed and will face Roman Safiullin. It will be Alcaraz’s first singles match since April, after the two-time U.S. Open champion was forced to miss the French Open and Wimbledon because of a right wrist injury.
The 23-year-old returned to play with Serena in the mixed doubles tournament and looked rusty. He may have to be sharper against Safiullin, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, upsetting Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca along the way before falling to 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic in four sets.
Safiullin also upset Alcaraz, ranked No. 2 at the time, in the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Paris in 2023. Alcaraz avenged that loss the following year at the Paris Olympics in their only other meeting.
Alexander Zverev, the French Open champion who became the No. 1 seed in New York when Jannik Sinner pulled out with a knee injury, will open against Lorenzo Sonego.
Two-time reigning women’s singles champion Aryna Sabalenka opens against Camila Osorio. The top-ranked Sabalenka, who has struggled during the North American hard-court season, could face Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, the No. 6 seed, in the quarterfinals.
The other potential women’s quarterfinals: No. 2 Elena Rybakina versus No. 8 Iga Swiatek, and No. 4 Coco Gauff versus No. 5 Mirra Andreeva, the French Open champion, in the bottom half; and No. 3 Jessica Pegula versus No. 7 Karolina Muchova in Sabalenka’s half.
Pegula, who opens against Elena-Gabriela Ruse, would play the Williams-Kenin winner in the second round.
The potential men’s quarters: No. 1 Zverev versus No. 6 Alex de Minaur, and No. 3 Felix Auger-Aliassime versus No. 5 Flavio Cobolli in the top half; and No. 2 Alcaraz versus No. 8 Ben Shelton, and No. 4 Djokovic versus No. 7 Daniil Medvedev in the bottom half.
No. 10 seed Arthur Fils, coming off the title in the Cincinnati Open, faces two-time Grand Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was once ranked No. 3, in the first round.
Stan Wawrinka, the 2016 U.S. Open champion who received a wild card to play in his final Grand Slam tournament before retiring, faces Matteo Berrettini, the 2021 Wimbledon runner-up, to open a second straight major tournament. Berrettini won in four sets — all tiebreakers — at the All England Club. The winner would likely face Djokovic in the second round.
Rublev, the No. 23 seed, faces 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic. No. 13 Lorenzo Musetti, who reached the quarterfinals in New York last year, opens against Arthur Fery, who lost to Zverev in the Wimbledon semifinals.
Some first-round matches won’t be determined until the conclusion of the qualifying tournaments, which were scheduled to finish Thursday before some matches were postponed until Friday because of rain. Potential women’s contenders such as No. 11 Marta Kostyuk and No. 17 Alex Eala were among those waiting to see who they would face in their openers.