US Open 2024 tennis live updates: Day 1 latest as Novak Djokovic ...

U.S. tennis, particularly on the men’s side, has been going through something of a lean patch in recent years.

The statistic that perhaps best highlights that is that there has not been an American winner of the men’s US Open title since Andy Roddick all the way back in 2003. For reference, Ben Shelton was less than a year old when that happened!

In fact, that is the last time an American man won a Grand Slam at all. That triumph in 2003 meant a U.S. man had won seven of the last 11 titles at Flushing Meadows after the dominance of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

There are four U.S. men among the seeds at the US Open this year — Fritz (12), Shelton (13), Korda (16) and Tiafoe (20) — but it would be considered a major upset if any of them were to lift the trophy at the end of the fortnight.

Hello again everyone. It's great to have you with us.

It's set to be a nice day in Queens, New York, with highs of 82F/28C, and an outside chance of rain.

We are one hour away from play being started at 11am local time (EDT), 4pm BST for those in the UK.

We'll have lots more build-up, features, news, previews, stats, and more before the action gets going.

So stick with me and Michael Dominski!

The struggles of the American men in the last couple of decades has, fortunately for the United States, not translated to the women’s side.

In the absence of Serena Williams lifting the big trophies, Sloane Stephens (2017) and Coco Gauff (2023) have won the US Open.

Gauff’s triumph 12 months ago marked her first ever Grand Slam and it has left her hungry for more.

Her preparations leading into this fortnight have been suboptimal but semifinals at the French Open and Wimbledon earlier in the year should give her the confidence that she can defend her title in Queens.

Coco Gauff has a story. It started when Chris Eubanks, her close friend, called her a few days before the start of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Eubanks nominated Gauff to serve as the female flag bearer for the United States at the opening ceremony. The athletes have voted, he tells her. She’s won. The tears start to flow.

Gauff, 20, the defending U.S. Open champion and one of the biggest stars in American sport, is proud and amazed and humbled that a young Black woman from what she described as a “predominantly White sport” would end up holding the American flag for the biggest moment of the world’s largest sporting event.

She knows this isn’t about just about her. During her lifetime, Black Americans have become some of the biggest stars in tennis and in some cases have transcended the sport, especially in the U.S.

“Each one of them would tell you that Serena and Venus has played some part in their story,” she says, paying homage to the ground-shifting Williams sisters, who changed tennis as arguably no one else has before or since. She says there are so many more who bear mention too, including Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson.

“They’ve all played some part of our story.” Read more below.

GO FURTHER

How Black American tennis players built U.S. stardom: ‘Serena and Venus said I can be myself’

Some eye-watering sums of money will be on offer to the players competing at the US Open during this fortnight.

In fact, the purse for this year’s tournament is the largest in tennis history, standing at a staggering $75million. And it is the 51st year that equal prize money is on offer to the men and women at the US Open.

Here is the breakdown in the singles draws:

Preparing for a Grand Slam without Andy Murray is nothing particularly new — he has not played a singles match at five of the last 15 slams. But now his retirement has been confirmed, it feels strange.

The Scotsman might not have a trophy cabinet as stacked as Djokovic, Nadal and Federer but he is an icon of the sport, with three Grand Slams wins and two Olympic gold medals.

The first of Murray’s Slams came in New York in 2012 and he was always strongly supported whenever he played at Flushing Meadows.

There will almost certainly be a strong British contingent this year, as there always is, but there will be no Murray mania.

If you needed it, here is a quick refresher of the Grand Slam winners so far in 2024.

Two of the top-ranked players on both the men’s and women’s side have scooped the big prizes, while there was a surprise winner on the grass at Wimbledon.

The numbers in brackets signify the champions’ rankings before the tournament.

The best news about the draw for Coco Gauff is that she’s on the opposite side from Swiatek, who has beaten her 11 out of 12 times. They won’t face each other unless both players make the final.

Since the French Open, Gauff hasn’t shown the form that would qualify her thinking in those terms. She lost in the fourth round of Wimbledon and the third round at the Olympics. She lost her second match in Canada in the round of 16, and her first match in Cincinnati in the round of 32.

She will face Varvara Gracheva of France in the first round. Gracheva is ranked 66th in the world. She’s in the same quarter of the draw as Elina Svitolina, Navarro, who knocked her out of Wimbledon, and Marta Kostyuk, and is in the same half as Aryna Sabalenka, who just won Cincinnati.

She has a long, long, road to Swiatek.

GO FURTHER

U.S. Open draw 2024: Djokovic avoids Alcaraz, Sinner – Gauff and Swiatek apart

At Wimbledon, the big story from the women’s draw was the rotten luck of the No 1 seed Swiatek, who seemingly had peril at every turn. So it proved, as she was knocked out in the third round by Yulia Putintseva, one of tennis’ most feared giant-killers.

This time, the fates have been kinder to Swiatek, with the 2022 champion facing a qualifier in the first round, possibly another in the second, and then most likely the No 25 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third.

Swiatek could play Danielle Collins in the quarterfinal, which would be a blockbuster occasion in the American’s final Grand Slam — especially given the strange way their recent match at the Olympics played out.

Eyebrows were raised with Collins saying she had told the world No 1 that she did not have to be “insincere” about Collins retiring through injury.

Novak Djokovic, the greatest tennis player of the modern era by the numbers, also has some of the greatest luck in tennis.

For a third consecutive Grand Slam, Djokovic has landed on the opposite side of the draw from Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, the two players who have proven themselves to be his equal or even a little better this year, especially in the Grand Slams.

Sinner won in Australia. Alcaraz won the French Open and Wimbledon. Djokovic arrives in New York without winning one of the last three Slams for the first time in 14 years. And just like in Paris and London, he will not meet Sinner or Alcaraz until the final, if at all.

If you’re 37 years old and coming off a few weeks’ rest, following an exhausting triumph at the Olympics, that’s very good fortune. Beating Sinner and Alcaraz back-to-back in a semi and a final would be a tall order for anyone these days — even Djokovic.

As it so often does at a Grand Slam, the draws threw up some exciting first-round match-ups, and The Athletic's Matt Futterman has picked out a trio of matches to keep an eye in the first round.

Two former US Open champions facing seeded opponents and a home favorite against an Italian hotshot — what more could you want?

Colleague Charlie Eccleshare agreed with the first two, but added Qinwen Zheng (7) vs Amanda Anisimova to the list.

And here are the other 16 seeded women’s players at this US Open:

All eyes will be on the weather forecast in Queens during the fortnight. We saw both the French Open and Wimbledon ravaged by rain, so hopefully the clouds stay away this week.

Of the grand slam hosts, Flushing Meadows is the least prepared for adverse weather as only one court — Arthur Ashe Stadium — has a retractable roof.

By contrast, there are three arenas with a roof at Melbourne Park and two each at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Unsurprisingly, the seeded players on the women’s side at the US Open are not too different at all from those who were seeded at Wimbledon last month. Here are the first 16:

And here are the men’s players seeded from 17 to 32:

There is lots of competition for seeded places at Grand Slams because, in essence, it guarantees an easier run to the latter stages of the competition.

Here are the top half of those seeded players (the rest to come shortly):

There aren’t many sporting events as busy as a tennis major and we are in for a hectic fortnight at Flushing Meadows.

On the presumption that the weather plays ball over the next few days, here is the schedule.

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Here are your viewing options for the US Open depending on where you are based.