NEW YORK: The US Open will return in full force this August with 100% fan capacity and a full complement of the game’s top players, with the men’s and women’s singles fields officially announced on Wednesday.
Each of the ATP’s Top 103 men have entered into New York singles event, with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic heading the field. The Serb’s hunt for the calendar-year Grand Slam — and possibly the Golden Slam — will be among the major storylines at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Djokovic is seeking to become the third man in history to win the calendar Slam, after Rod Laver (1969) and Don Budge (1938), and the second player overall to complete the Golden Slam, after Steffi Graf (1988).
The No. 3-ranked Rafael Nadal and No. 9 Roger Federer will be seeking history of their own this summer, while trying to keep Djokovic from it. The Big Three enter New York level with a record 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, with singular status on offer should one of them claim the US Open crown.
On the distaff side, seven of those major-winners currently reside the Top 10 of the WTA rankings. World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, who recently won her second major title at Wimbledon, leads the entry list ahead of world No. 2 Naomi Osaka, a four-time Slam-winner and the defending US Open champion; 2020 Australian Open champion and world No. 4 Sofia Kenin; 2019 US Open winner Bianca Andreescu, the world No. 5; 2020 French Open champion and world No. 8 Iga Swiatek; and a pair of former world No. 1s and two-time Slam champions in world No. 9 Garbiñe Muguruza and world No. 10 Simona Halep.
The July 19 edition of the world rankings was used to determine 2021 US Open entry, with 100 of the world’s Top 104 opting in.
A total of 35 nations are represented in the men’s entry list and 34 in the women’s.
The 2021 US Open will mark the culmination of the US Open Series, the North American summer season of nine WTA and ATP Tour events that began last week in Newport, R.I. The US Open main draw will be played Aug. 30-Sept.12 at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.
