Express. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. HOME News Royal Showbiz & TV Sport Comment Finance Travel Entertainment Life & Style Football Tennis Transfer news F1 Boxing UFC Cricket Rugby Other Golf NFL Racing NBA Tennis fans hoping to watch the draw for the US Open have been left disappointed. Chinese tennis star Wu Yibing on his journey to ATP TourOrganisers appear to have resisted pressure to follow the lead of Wimbledon by choosing not to broadcast a live feed of the draw for the US Open. The final Grand Slam tournament of the year gets underway on Monday, August 28, with the main draw scheduled to be undertaken on Thursday, August 24.
The All England club broke with tradition earlier this year when instead of broadcasting its draw on the radio, a live feed of the procedure was streamed on the internet.
The move was designed to increase transparency around the draw and create pre-tournament excitement, but despite calls from fans for the US Open to follow suit, that will not be the case.
According to the i, the full completed draw will simply be ‘revealed’ on the tournament website once it has been undertaken, as it has done in previous years.
The decision not to broadcast the draw is at odds with the US Open’s proud position as one of the most innovative tournaments, having been the first to introduce equal prize money for men and women – a parity that has now been in place for the past 50 years, shortly after the formation of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA).
Tennis fans on social media have reacted with disappointment at the decision. @TennisUpdates23 wrote on X: “Now that Wimbledon streams the draw, the US Open is the only major that doesn’t. A big unforced error.”
Philip Fama wrote: “How not to get people excited for the last Grand Slam of the year.”
Journalist James Gray added: “It is the kind of thing that fans love to be involved with and can easily be turned into a decent bit of content to “launch” the tournament.”
Carlos Alcaraz will defend his title at the US Open next week. (Image: Getty)
The time of the draw has not yet been confirmed but it is traditionally stage at around midday New York time, or 5pm UK time.
Both singles draws are made up of 128 players with the top 32 seeded to supposedly offer them a more comfortable route to the final. 104 players receive a direct entry based on their world ranking, while another 16 must make their way through three rounds of qualifying matches to reach the main draw.
The final eight places are wildcards awarded to players at the discretion of the tournament organisers.
World No 1 Carlos Alcaraz is the defending champion after he beat Norwegian Casper Rudd in last year’s final 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3.
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Iga Swiatek is the reigning women’s US Open champion. (Image: Getty)
Novak Djokovic will be hoping to win a record 24th Grand Slam title and he has already laid down a marker by beating Alcaraz on Sunday to clinch the Cincinnati Open by two sets to one.
In the women’s singles, Iga Swiatek will be looking to defend her title. Last year she beat Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the final 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). Swiatek also won the French Open last year and repeated the trick in 2023.
But she was given a shock at last week’s Cincinnati Open when the Polish star was defeated in the semi-final by eventual winner Coco Gauff 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 4-6.
Alcaraz and Swiatek will likely be the top seeds but fans will have to wait until the draw is published online before they can find out who they will face in the first round.
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