By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 23, 2023

With qualifiers kicking off at the 2023 US Open this week, and most top players descending onto the grounds at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows for practice and media obligations, we figured it is high time that we take a look at this year’s major contenders and potential noisemakers. We’ve already done the women’s side, now here come the men...



Here are 10 players to watch – and why – at the 2023 US Open:

Novak Djokovic

I was asked recently: why hasn’t Novak Djokovic had more success at the US Open lately, and over the course of his career? It’s legitimate for people to want to ask why the 23-time major champion has only won three titles in Flushing Meadows. Heck, he’s done that at Roland-Garros, and we know why the number is so low there… but in New York? There has definitely been some bad luck for Djokovic in New York, and we can look no further than the disqualification in 2020 and the fact that he wasn’t allowed into the US last year to compete. It goes without saying that Djokovic could have won both of those titles.

As it stands, Djokovic’s 81-13 lifetime record with nine finals in 16 total appearances is still pretty darn good, and we rank him as the favorite to go all the way this year thanks to his win over Carlos Alcaraz in Cincinnati and his overall history and experience at the Open.

No titles in the last four seasons can be chalked up to tough luck and running out of gas in 2021 when he was one win from the Calendar Slam and fell to Daniil Medvedev in the final. If Djokovic can manage his energy and have something left for the final in 2023, we like his chances to increase his Slam count once again.

Carlos Alcaraz

The one man that could change everything we wrote in the first paragraph about Djokovic is the 20-year-old phenom from Murcia. Alcaraz is getting better with each passing week and he’s a serious candidate to complete the first successful men’s singles title defense in Queens since Federer in 2008.

At 53-6 on the season with six titles, Alcaraz has distanced himself from the rest of the non-Djokovic members of the field. He’s barely 20, ranked No.1, and already a two-time Slam champion and a certain Hall of Famer.

Even more remarkable, he’s still just finding himself as a player. There is plenty of room for Alcaraz to grow – just look at how much growth Djokovic managed from the time he was 20 until he was 30. We expect him to be across from Djokovic in the final Sunday of the US Open, and if his growth continues at its current alarming rate, he just may be ready to avenge that Cincinnati loss…

Daniil Medvedev

Nobody is talking about Medvedev even though he is 49-11 with five titles on the season. He’s also a former US Open champion with a 23-5 lifetime record at Flushing Meadows. If anyone has what it takes to cancel a Djokovic v Alcaraz final, it’s the Russian, and that’s why all eyes will be on his name when the draw is released on Thursday at 12 noon.

That said, his form of late has not been as scintillating as it was earlier in the season.

Jannik Sinner

Speaking of potential disruptors, Jannik Sinner is another player with the game to cause serious trouble in Queens. We all witnessed it last year, when he played the most entertaining match of the 2022 tennis season and held a match point against Alcaraz in the quarterfinals at Flushing. The Italian was one point from changing everything! He may be there again this year because, quite simply, he’s that good, and at 22 he’s improving rapidly.

Case in point? His 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 win over Alcaraz in their last meeting, which took his lifetime head-to-head against the Spanish juggernaut to 3-3.

Don’t sleep on Sinner in New York…

Alexander Zverev

Don’t look now, but Alexander Zverev is finally back somewhere close to his best tennis. It took the lanky German a full year to get things on the right track after his devastating ankle injury, and resulting surgery, at Roland-Garros last year, but after a title at Hamburg on the clay this summer, and a good showing at Cincinnati, where he reached the semis, he’s starting to play the type of tennis that could significantly impact a Grand Slam draw.

Tommy Paul

It has been a groundbreaking season for Tommy Paul on every level. He made his Top 20 debut, reached his first Grand Slam semifinal at this year’s Australian Open, and continues to be a factor at the big events. Don’t believe us? Just ask Alcaraz – the American has split four meetings with the Spaniard and recently recorded his first victory over a reigning World No.1 in Toronto, where he took out Alcaraz in a three-set thriller.

Alcaraz returned the favor a week later in Cincinnati, but not without struggling to close out a wild 7-6(6), 6-7(0), 6-3 victory.

The lesson learned is that Paul can play with Alcaraz, and pretty much everybody else on tour right now.

He’ll have to prove himself in New York all over again, however, because he owns a 2-5 lifetime record at the Open, and has never been beyond the third round (which he did last year).

Holger Rune

Holger Rune, where art thou? The Dane has struggled since his loss to Alcaraz at Wimbledon, and will enter the US Open on a three-match losing streak. Is Rune as good as his current ranking (No.4!) suggests? We think so, but he needs to be more consistent. If he’s on his game he has what it takes to make a run in New York, but like Paul, he’s unproven, with a 1-2 lifetime record in New York.

Casper Ruud

Here is a chance for Casper Ruud, now a three-time Grand Slam finalist, to prove that last year’s run to the final was no fluke. It might be a tough ask. Ruud has had a tricky season, compiling a 29-17 record with just one title (on clay). He’s 6-8 on hard courts in 2023, but to be fair, he wasn’t tearing up the tour on clay and still showed up at Roland-Garros to play himself into the final.

It will be harder for him to do that on hard courts…

Andrey Rublev

Rublev always shows up at hard court Grand Slams. He’s 33-14 combined across Australia and the US Open with five quarterfinals. Perhaps this will be the year that Rublev shakes free of his 0-8 record in major quarterfinals? He has the game to do it, but does he have the belief?

Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz

We put the top two Americans together, though they come at this tournament from different angles. No.9-ranked Fritz was upset by Brandon Holt in the first-round last year. He badly wants to get that bitter defeat out of his system.

Tenth-ranked Tiafoe, on the other hand, wants to recreate the magic of his semifinal run from a year ago. It will be interesting to see how psychology impacts these two… Fritz is 6-7 lifetime at the Open – not a top American ledger at all. Tiafoe is 13-8 at Flushing Meadows and has made the second week in each of his last three appearances. Do we hear four?