At the year’s final Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic will bid to back up his first Olympic gold medal with his first major title of 2024. 

The defending US Open champion must fend off competition from Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, who have combined to win each of the year’s first three majors. 

Apart from the top three players in the PIF ATP Rankings, other New York contenders include 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev and 2020 finalist Alexander Zverev. 

A host of Americans will also threaten on home soil, led by Top 20 stars Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda and Frances Tiafoe.

ATPTour.com breaks down 10 things to watch at the hard-court Grand Slam.

1. Djokovic’s title defence: Djokovic enters the US Open on the heels of winning his first Olympic gold medal in Paris — a feat that completed a career Golden Slam for the Serbian. 

The 37-year-old has not competed since he beat Alcaraz 7-6(3), 7-6(2) in the Olympic final and will return to hard courts for the first time since Indian Wells in New York. 

If he wins his record-extending 25th Grand Slam men’s singles title, Djokovic will also extend his streak to seven years with at least one major crown. From 2011-23, he was shut out at the Slams just once (2017).

2. Alcaraz seeks third straight Slam: The reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion brings a 14-match major winning streak to New York. The 21-year-old has never been knocked out before the quarter-finals in three US Opens, winning his maiden Grand Slam title in 2022 and advancing to the semis last year.

A surprise opening-round upset to Gael Monfils in Cincinnati means the Spaniard has played just one hard-court match in the lead-up to the year’s final major. In his two most recent hard-court events prior to Cincinnati, he won the Indian Wells title and reached the Miami quarter-finals.

 3. Sinner seeks to back up Cincinnati surge: After withdrawing from the Paris Olympics due to illness, the No. 1 player in the PIF ATP Rankings hit the hard courts in Montreal. At the ATP Masters 1000, the Italian suffered a quarter-final defeat to Andrey Rublev in which he appeared to struggle with his hip — an injury that has affected him for much of the 2024 season.

But Sinner was no worse for the wear in Cincinnati, where he beat Rublev and Alexander Zverev in consecutive three-setters before sprinting to the title with a lights-out second set against Tiafoe. Can the reigning Australian Open champ sweep the hard-court Slams after winning his second hard-court ATP Masters 1000 of the season?

4. Zverev strives for final Slam step: A US Open finalist in 2020 (l. to Thiem), Zverev reached his second major title match this year at Roland Garros, where he again suffered a heartbreaking five-set defeat. After a five-set loss to Taylor Fritz in the Wimbledon fourth round, the Rome champion reached his third final of 2024 on home soil in Hamburg. 

On the heels of a quarter-final run in Montreal and a semi-final showing in Cincinnati, Zverev could be primed for another deep major run.

5. Medvedev seeks turnaround at most successful Slam: Medvedev was beaten in his opening matches at both Montreal (l. to Davidovich Fokina) and Cincinnati (l. to Lehecka), leaving him in search of his first hard-court win since he reached the Miami semi-finals in March. Despite the recent mini-slump, Medvedev is always a title contender on his favoured surface — particularly in New York, where he won his maiden major title in 2021 and reached finals in 2019 and 2023.

Medvedev’s 29-6 record at the US Open is his best among the majors in terms of total wins and win percentage (83%).

6. Top 10 talents: World No. 6 Rublev split a pair of meetings with Sinner in consecutive weeks, beating the Italian en route to the Montreal final before losing to the World No. 1 in Cincinnati. He was beaten for the Montreal trophy by Alexei Popyrin, who made huge strides toward joining the Top 10 himself by winning his first ATP Masters 1000 crown — which lifted him to a career-high PIF ATP Ranking of World No. 23.

Hubert Hurkacz successfully returned from knee surgery after tearing the meniscus in his right knee at Wimbledon to reach the quarter-finals in both of the recent hard-court ATP Masters 1000s. World No. 10 Alex de Minaur will hope to make his own winning return form injury when he competes for the first time since a hip injury forced him to withdraw ahead of his Wimbledon quarter-final clash against Novak Djokovic.

2022 US Open finalist Casper Ruud and 2019 semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov will both seek New York turnarounds after early exits at both Montreal and Cincinnati. The same can be said for World No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has never been beyond the third round at the US Open.

7. Top 20 Americans: For the first time since 1997, five Americans are in the Top 20 of the PIF ATP Rankings — just in time for their home Slam. Tiafoe’s run to the Cincinanti final lifted him to World No. 20, behind No. 12 Fritz, No. 13 Shelton, No. 14 Paul and No. 16 Korda.

While Fritz and Paul — who teamed to win the men’s doubles bronze medal at the Paris Olympics— both went 1-2 across Montreal and Cincinnati, Tiafoe, Shelton and Korda all made deep hard-court runs in recent weeks. Korda won his second tour-level title in Washington before reaching the Montreal semis, while Shelton reached the D.C. semis and the Cincinnati quarters. Tiafoe progressed to the Washington semi-finals in addition to reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Cincinnati.

8. Thiem, Wawrinka among wild cards: Dominic Thiem was awarded a wild card for his farewell US Open, with the 2020 New York champ set to retire after this season. Stan Wawrinka also received a wild card for what will be his 72nd Grand Slam singles appearance, which will put him at fifth on the all-time men’s list.

9. #NextGenATP stars: France’s Arthur Fils enters the US Open as the runaway leader in the PIF ATP Live Race to Jeddah, followed by Alex Michelsen, Shang Juncheng and Jakub Mensik. All four earned direct entry into the US Open main draw. Fils, will look to build on a fourth-round run at Wimbledon, his best performance in six previous Grand Slam main draw appearances.

10. Four score for Ram/Salisbury?: American Rajeev Ram and Great Britain’s Joe Salisbury completed a three-peat of US Open men’s doubles title last year, coming from behind to beat Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden in the final. The two-time reigning Nitto ATP Finals champions will seek a fourth straight New York crown and fifth Grand Slam title together, with their first coming at the 2020 Australian Open.

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Source: USA Today