US Open Champions hedline
White Plains, N.Y., July 20, 2016 – The USTA has announced that defending US Open champion and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, world No. 2 and reigning Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, five-time US Open champion and world No. 3 Roger Federer, and two-time US Open champion and world No. 4 Rafael Nadal headline the men’s singles field for the 2016 US Open Tennis Championships.
The field includes five former US Open singles champions, including Djokovic (2011, 2015), Murray (2012), Federer (2004-2008), Nadal (2010, 2013) and Marin Cilic (2014). Each of the world’s top 98 men received direct entry into the US Open, representing 38 countries.
The 2016 US Open will be played Monday, August 29, through Sunday, September 11, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. The US Open Men’s Singles Championship is presented by Mercedes-Benz.
Djokovic, who has reached the singles final in Flushing five out of the last six years, leads the men’s field as the world No. 1 and defending US Open champion. The Serbian won his 12th major championship at the French Open in June to complete the “Career Grand Slam,” and held all four major titles until Sam Querrey ended his 30-match win streak at Grand Slams in the third round at Wimbledon. Murray, of Great Britain, won his third major and second Wimbledon title this month after finishing runner-up to Djokovic in this year’s Australian and French Open finals.
Murray, the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist, defeated Djokovic in the 2012 US Open final to win his first Grand Slam championship. Federer, of Switzerland, is the all-time leader with 17 major singles titles, and was bidding for his eighth Wimbledon title this summer before falling to Milos Raonic in the semifinals. Federer is competing for his sixth US Open title, which would surpass Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors for the most US Open men’s singles titles in the Open Era.
Nadal, of Spain, is a 14-time Grand Slam champion who won his 69th career ATP World Tour title in Barcelona this April. He has not played competitively since withdrawing from the French Open in June with a wrist injury.
Also included in the men’s singles field are: No. 5 Stan Wawrinka, of Switzerland, the 2014 Australian Open and 2015 French Open champion; No. 6 Kei Nishikori, of Japan, a 2014 US Open finalist; No. 7 Milos Raonic, of Canada, who reached his first Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon this month; No. 8 Tomas Berdych, of the Czech Republic, a former world No. 4 and 2016 Wimbledon semifinalist; No. 9 Dominic Thiem, the 22-year old Austrian talent; No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, of France; No. 11 David Goffin, of Belgium; and No. 12 Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion. Canadian Vasek Pospisil, ranked No. 98, is the last man to receive direct entry into the field of 128. Six players used a protected ranking to gain entry, including Nos. 39 Julien Benneteau, of France, and Janko Tipsarevic from Serbia, No. 56 Brian Baker, of the United States, No. 81 Thanasi Kokkinakis, of Australia, No. 89 Dmitry Tursunov, of Russia, and No. 94 Jerzy Janowicz, of Poland. Sixteen more players will gain entry through the US Open Qualifying Tournament, held August 23-26, while the eight remaining spots are wild cards awarded by the USTA.
American men who received direct entry are No. 16 John Isner, of Greensboro, N.C., No. 25
Steve Johnson, of Orange, Calif., No. 26 Jack Sock, of Lincoln, Neb., No. 29 Sam Querrey, of Las Vegas, No. 56 Brian Baker, of Nashville, Tenn., No. 57 Donald Young, of Atlanta, and No. 67 Taylor Fritz, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion, is entered as an alternate and would be making his first appearance at the US Open since 2013. Among the players competing in the US Open Qualifying Tournament will be the winner of the seventh annual US Open National Playoffs Men’s Championship, held during the Emirates Airline US Open Series’ Connecticut Open in New Haven, Conn., prior to the US Open Qualifying Tournament. The USTA created the US Open National Playoffs in 2010 to allow players 14 and older, regardless of playing ability or nationality, to vie for a spot in the US Open Qualifying Tournament via one of 15 sectional qualifying tournaments.
The July 18 edition of the Emirates ATP Rankings was used to determine the US Open main draw entry list. Seeds will be determined and announced closer to the start of the event. The 2016 US Open will mark the culmination of the Emirates Airline US Open Series, the North American summer season of seven ATP World Tour and WTA events that began this week in Stanford, Calif.
The US Open is the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world. 2016 marks the second year of an 11-year partnership between the USTA and ESPN, which will see the US Open carried on the ESPN family of networks through 2025. During this year’s US Open, ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to air nearly 130 hours of live match play with more than 1,200 hours of first-to-last ball coverage to be seen on ESPN3 on WatchESPN, which will go live coverage on ESPN will feature play from up to 12 courts.
