Tertius News is an AI-native newsroom: an AI model reads the linked source articles below and extracts what each outlet reported, so you can compare their coverage side by side. How this works →
US Open Day 2: Alcaraz, Sabalenka begin title defence; Djokovic exits in five-set thriller
Day 2 of the 2026 US Open features defending champions Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka, while Novak Djokovic was eliminated in the first round by Mariano Navone in five sets. Matches are spread across Arthur Ashe, Louis Armstrong, Grandstand, and outer courts.
By Tertius News AI Desk2 distinct · 2 mastheads · 2 articlesVersion 2Coverage Published
Djokovic's early exit headlines Day 1
Novak Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, was knocked out in the first round by Mariano Navone in a five-set match. The Serb struggled with physical issues during the match, according to reports from Lokmat Times. The loss ended Djokovic's run of 78 consecutive Grand Slam first-round victories, as noted by the same outlet.
Alcaraz and Sabalenka open their campaigns
Defending champions Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka will begin their title defences on Day 2. Alcaraz, returning from a wrist injury that sidelined him earlier in the season, faces Roman Safiullin on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Sabalenka, the top seed on the women's side, takes on Camila Osorio in the opening session on the same court.
According to Outlook India, Alcaraz and Safiullin are level at 1-1 in their head-to-head, with Safiullin winning their 2023 Paris Masters encounter before Alcaraz levelled the series. Alcaraz missed the 2026 French Open and Wimbledon due to the injury.
Other notable first-round matches
Naomi Osaka, a two-time US Open champion, plays Anastasia Zakharova on Arthur Ashe Stadium in the night session. Ben Shelton, the eighth seed, faces Tallon Griekspoor on the same court later on.
On Louis Armstrong Stadium, Iga Swiatek takes on Wang Xiyu, while Stefanos Tsitsipas meets Arthur Fils, who won his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati prior to the event. Ashlyn Krueger faces Amanda Anisimova, last year's runner-up, in another Armstrong Stadium match.
Stan Wawrinka, the 2008 Olympic singles champion, plays Matteo Berrettini on Grandstand. Grigor Dimitrov meets Alexei Popyrin on Court 12, and Otto Virtanen faces Andrey Rublev on Court 7 after Marin Cilic withdrew due to injury.
Matteo Arnaldi, the 30th seed, faces James Duckworth on Court 10. Arnaldi reached the second week here in 2023.
How each outlet told it
A framing line is our reading of that outlet's own text — an interpretation, not a quotation and not a fact we assert. Check it against what the outlet published.
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status is Contested when two claims on this page negate each other; otherwise it counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimCarlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka are the defending champions at the 2026 US Open.