Arthur Ashe Stadium seen from the top row, with the blue court far below

Grand Slam guide 2027 Aug 29 - Sep 12

US Open Prize Money 2026: Tennis Payouts by Round, 2027 Dates and Past Winners

The last major of the season and the loudest. It runs for two weeks at the end of the North American summer in Flushing Meadows, Queens, with night sessions under the roof of the biggest tennis stadium in the world.

Countdown: 300days to the 2027 US Open, August 29 - September 12, 2027
Champion's cheque: $5.5M2026 singles, men and women
Arthur Ashe Stadium: 23,771seats, the largest tennis stadium

Photo: slgckgc, CC BY 2.0, cropped, via Wikimedia Commons

US Open dates

When the US Open is played

In briefThe 2027 US Open runs from August 29, 2027 to September 12, 2027. The 2026 US Open ran August 30 - September 13, 2026, the fourth and last Grand Slam of the year.

The four majors across 2027Each bar is one major, coloured by the surface. The figure between two bars is the gap between them.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 16weeks3weeks7weeks

Australian OpenJanuary 17 to January 31
Roland GarrosMay 23 to June 6
WimbledonJune 28 to July 11
US OpenAugust 29 to September 12

The shortest gap is Paris to London: 3 weeks between the last day of one and the first of the next.

First held1881145 editions' worth of history
SurfaceHardBlue acrylic hard court
WhereNew YorkUSTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
Main court23,771seats, Arthur Ashe Stadium
Singles draw128players, men and women
Next editionAugust 29 - September 12in 300 days

2027 main draw: August 29 - September 12Starts Sunday
2026 edition: August 30 - September 13Main draw; women's final Saturday, men's final Sunday

The US Open fills the last two weeks of August and the first half of September, the end of the North American hard-court summer that starts in Washington and runs through the Canadian Open in Toronto and Montreal, then Cincinnati. In 2025 the tournament moved to a Sunday start and a 15-day main draw, as Melbourne and Paris already did, and the week before became Fan Week, which holds qualifying, practice sessions and the mixed doubles, with free grounds admission on several days.

Labor Day falls inside the fortnight, so the second week starts with a public holiday in the US. The full summer swing is in our tennis calendar, week by week. Once the fortnight is over, the women's tour heads to Asia, with the Korea Open in Seoul among its first stops.

US Open prize money

US Open prize money by round

In briefThe 2026 US Open paid $108M in total. Each singles champion took $5,500,000, the largest single cheque in tennis, and a first-round loser $140,000.

Singles prize money by round, 2026Per player, men and women alike, in US dollars. Bars are to scale against the champion's cheque.

Champion$5,500,000
Runner-up$2,800,000
Semifinal$1,450,000
Quarterfinal$780,000
Fourth round$480,000
Third round$290,000
Second round$190,000
First round$140,000

Figures in US dollars, per player, as published by the USTA for the singles draws.

Try it

What does each round pay?

Round reached

Champion$5,500,000about $5.5M39.3x a first-round cheque

The US Open has paid the most of any Grand Slam for years, and the gap widened in 2026. The purse grew by 20%, from $90 million in 2025 to $108 million, with the champion's cheque up from $5 million to $5.5 million. Even the first round of qualifying paid $32,000. The champion earns about 39 times what a first-round loser takes home.

The US Open was also the first of the four majors to pay men and women equally, in 1973, more than three decades before Wimbledon followed. How the other Slams compare, round by round, is on our Grand Slams overview and in the prize money guide.

Versus the other Slams

US Open prize money compared with the other Grand Slams

In briefThe four majors side by side: the champion's cheque in US dollars at the latest exchange rate, with the first-round cheque and the total purse of each.

The four Grand Slams by prize money Latest edition, singles; US dollars at GBP 1 = $1.3399, EUR 1 = $1.1172, A$1 = $0.7025 (ECB reference rates, October 30, 2026)

1 US Open 2026 $5.5M Champion$5.5M First round$140K Total purse$108M
2 Wimbledon 2026 $4.82M ChampionGBP 3.6M First round$107K Total purse$86M
3 Roland Garros 2026 $3.13M ChampionEUR 2.8M First round$97K Total purse$69M
4 Australian Open 2026 $2.92M ChampionA$4.15M First round$105K Total purse$78.3M

US Open winners

US Open winners, the last five years

In briefAlexander Zverev and Elena Rybakina won the 2026 singles titles. Aryna Sabalenka won the women's title in both 2024 and 2025.

2026 champions

Men's singlesAlexander Zverevbeat Ben Shelton, 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2

Women's singlesElena Rybakinabeat Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2

US Open singles champions, 2022 to 2026
Year	Men's singles	Women's singles
2026	Alexander Zverev d. Ben Shelton, 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2	Elena Rybakina d. Aryna Sabalenka, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
2025	Carlos Alcaraz d. Jannik Sinner, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4	Aryna Sabalenka d. Amanda Anisimova
2024	Jannik Sinner d. Taylor Fritz, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5	Aryna Sabalenka d. Jessica Pegula, 7-5, 7-5
2023	Novak Djokovic d. Daniil Medvedev, 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3	Coco Gauff d. Aryna Sabalenka, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
2022	Carlos Alcaraz d. Casper Ruud, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3	Iga Swiatek d. Ons Jabeur, 6-2, 7-6(5)

Photos, cropped, from Wikimedia Commons: Alexander Zverev by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA (CC BY-SA 2.0, source); Elena Rybakina by Hameltion (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Carlos Alcaraz by 12121343A (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Aryna Sabalenka by Ocoudis (CC0 1.0, source); Jannik Sinner by Hameltion (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Novak Djokovic by AndrewHenkelman (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Coco Gauff by Hameltion (CC BY-SA 4.0, source); Iga Swiatek by Hameltion (CC BY-SA 4.0, source).

The 2026 tournament was a breakthrough year for two players who had waited a long time. Alexander Zverev, the runner-up in New York in 2020, beat Ben Shelton in four sets for his second major of the season after Roland Garros. Elena Rybakina beat Aryna Sabalenka in three sets in a rematch of their Australian Open final from January, again in three sets. Earlier in the fortnight Shelton and Carlos Alcaraz played a five-set match that ended at 3:33 in the morning, the latest finish the tournament has recorded.

Flushing Meadows

Flushing Meadows and its stadiums

In briefThe US Open has been played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center since 1978. Arthur Ashe Stadium, with 23,771 seats, is the largest tennis stadium in the world.

Arthur Ashe StadiumOpened in 1997 as the largest tennis stadium in the world; finals and the night sessions.Retractable roof since 2016
about 23,771 seats
Louis Armstrong StadiumRebuilt in 2018 on the site of the old stadium the tournament moved into in 1978.Retractable roof since it reopened in 2018
about 14,000 seats

The tournament moved to Flushing Meadows in 1978, into the renovated Singer Bowl, a stadium built for the 1964 World's Fair. Before that it was played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, a few miles away, on grass for most of its history and on clay for its last three years there. The move brought the hard courts it has used ever since.

Arthur Ashe Stadium opened in 1997 and is steep enough that the top rows feel closer to the planes landing at LaGuardia than to the court. It got a retractable roof in 2016, and the rebuilt Louis Armstrong Stadium opened with its own roof in 2018. A further $800 million rebuild of the grounds, including work on Ashe and a new player performance center, is due for completion by the 2027 tournament.

AI-generated image: elevated view of a huge hard-court complex with blue courts and a giant stadium — Flushing Meadows in late summer: the show courts and the grounds between them.

How it works

How the US Open works

In brief128 players in each singles draw and seven rounds to the title. Men play best of five sets, women best of three, and a deciding set at 6-6 ends in a first-to-10 tiebreak.

The structure matches the other majors: 128-player singles draws, 32 seeds, qualifying the week before. Each day on Arthur Ashe Stadium splits into a day session and a night session with separate tickets, and the night session is what the US Open is known for, with a crowd that arrives after work and matches that often run past midnight. Arthur Ashe Stadium has also produced some of the most replayed rulings in the sport, from the foot-fault call against Serena Williams in the 2009 semifinal to her three code violations in the 2018 final; both rules are explained in our guides to the foot fault and the code violation.

The biggest recent change was in the mixed doubles. Since 2025 it has been a 16-team event over two days in Fan Week, with short sets to four games, which brought top singles players into the draw who would never have played a full mixed event during the main fortnight.

AI-generated image: fans in caps walking through a wide stadium concourse under striped umbrellas — The concourse between matches is part of the event.

Records

US Open records

In briefChris Evert and Serena Williams share the women's Open Era record with six titles. Roger Federer won five men's titles in a row from 2004 to 2008.

US Open recordsSingles, Open Era

6Most women's titles, Open EraChris Evert and Serena Williams
5Most consecutive men's titles, Open EraRoger Federer, 2004 to 2008
23,771Largest tennis stadiumArthur Ashe Stadium
3:33 amLatest finishShelton d. Alcaraz, 2026

Federer's run started with a 6-0, 7-6, 6-0 win over Lleyton Hewitt in the 2004 final and ended with a 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 win over Andy Murray in 2008; Juan Martin del Potro beat him in five sets in the 2009 final. Novak Djokovic, champion here in 2023 at 36, is the oldest man to win the title in the Open Era and one of the names on our list of the oldest Grand Slam winners. More all-time marks are in our records section.

How to watch

How to watch the US Open

In briefESPN has the US rights through 2037 and shows the day and night sessions on its networks and app. The tournament plays on Eastern time.

US Open under a deal that runs through 2037 Source

US broadcast lines checked October 21, 2026. Rights outside the US differ by country. Network logos are trademarks of their owners, shown only to identify the broadcaster; we are not affiliated with them.

TV and streaming: ESPN, under a deal that runs through 2037. Coverage is split across ESPN's channels and its streaming app in the first week.
Finals: The women's final is on the closing Saturday and the men's final on the Sunday afternoon, Eastern time, at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Outside the US: Rights differ by country. The official site lists the broadcaster for each market.

AI-generated image: blue hard court below a small grandstand, a much larger stadium wall behind it — From the smaller show courts you can hear Arthur Ashe Stadium before you see it.

Tickets

US Open tickets, in brief

In briefStadium tickets are sold per session, day or night, for Arthur Ashe or Louis Armstrong. A grounds pass covers the outside courts, and Fan Week has free grounds admission on several days.

Tickets are sold through the official site and its ticketing partner, session by session. A first-week upper-level seat in Arthur Ashe Stadium is the classic way in, with one big match from the top of the bowl, then the outside courts, where seeded players start their tournament a few rows from the crowd. Fan Week, the qualifying week before the main draw, is the best value of all; in 2026 grounds admission was free on eight of the 22 days the gates were open. Attendance passed 1.14 million in 2025, a record at the time.

AI-generated image: giant steep stadium bowl filling for an evening session, blue court, lights — The night session fills the bowl under the lights.

FAQ

US Open tennis questions, answered

In briefThe questions people ask most about the US Open, answered with the figures on this page.

When is the US Open 2027?

The 2027 US Open runs from August 29, 2027 to September 12, 2027. The draw is made in the week before, when Fan Week, qualifying and the mixed doubles are played on the same grounds.

How much money does the winner of the US Open get?

The 2026 singles champions each received $5,500,000, the largest cheque in tennis. The runner-up took $2,800,000 and a first-round loser $140,000.

Who won the US Open in 2026?

Alexander Zverev beat Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 in the men's final. Elena Rybakina won the women's title against Aryna Sabalenka.

Who has won the most US Open titles?

In the Open Era, Chris Evert and Serena Williams share the women's record with six titles each. Roger Federer won five men's titles in a row, from 2004 to 2008.

Where is the US Open played?

At the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. The tournament moved there from the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills in 1978.

What surface is the US Open played on?

Outdoor acrylic hard courts, blue inside the lines with a lighter blue surround. The US Open was a grass-court event for most of its history, switched to clay in 1975 and to hard courts with the move to Flushing Meadows in 1978.

Do men and women get equal prize money at the US Open?

Yes. The US Open was the first major to pay men and women the same, in 1973, and every round of the singles prize money table is identical for both draws.

Does Arthur Ashe Stadium have a roof?

Yes, a retractable roof since 2016. Louis Armstrong Stadium got its own roof when it was rebuilt in 2018, so two courts can play through rain.

How long does the US Open last?

The main draw takes 15 days from a Sunday start, a format the US Open moved to in 2025. With Fan Week and qualifying, the gates are open for about three weeks.

How can I watch the US Open on TV?

ESPN, under a deal that runs through 2037. ESPN shows the day and night sessions and streams the outside courts, and the finals air on the closing weekend in the afternoon, Eastern time.

What changed in the US Open mixed doubles?

Since 2025 the mixed doubles is a 16-team event played over two days in the week before the main draw, with short sets to four games, so that top singles players can enter without clashing with their singles.