The US Open main draw gets underway on Sunday. There are bound to be some big upsets in the early rounds of this tournament. There are also some exciting matchups for the first round.
Here are my best bets for Sunday of the first round of the 2026 US Open.
2026 US Open First Round Best Bets
Tommy Paul to win 3:0 vs. Coleman Wong (-105)
Tommy Paul is hoping for a great showing at the 2026 US Open. Paul has never been able to break through at a major, with just one career semifinal appearance. He is playing well coming into this tournament, coming off a big upset over Alexander Zverev in Cincinnati. While he has struggled in the later rounds of majors when facing tough opponents, he knows how to handle business in these early rounds.
At the 2025 US Open, Paul dispatched Elmer Moller in straight sets. He did the same to Alexandre Muller and Aleksander Kovacevic this year at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, respectively. In fact, this year’s Australian Open is a good example of how Tommy Paul often fares at majors. He didn’t drop a set through the first three rounds, but then was swiftly beaten in straight sets by Carlos Alcaraz in the fourth round.
Coleman Wong is a promising young player, but this is a big step up in class. He made it through qualifiers to reach the main draw here, but will struggle to compete with Tommy Paul. Wong has only made it to the main draw of a major twice, and only made it past the first round once. Paul should take care of business in straight sets with the American crowd at his back.
Parlay: Sofia Kenin to win 2:0 vs. Venus Williams & Marta Kostyuk to win 2:0 vs. Storm Hunter (-101)
Venus Williams elected to play singles again at this year’s US Open. A legendary player like Williams is able to play in whatever tournaments she wants to, but it has not been pretty for her in recent years. Williams has lost in the first round in each of her past five Grand Slam starts. It has not just been at the majors where Williams has struggled. She has played singles at 10 events this year and failed to win a match at all 10 events. It would seemingly take a miracle just for Williams to win a match at this point, so taking her to lose in straight sets to Sofia Kenin is the only way to bet on this match.
Sofia Kenin is better than plenty of the opponents that have beaten Williams this year. She is a former major winner and top-five player in the world. While she has not hit those heights this year, one only needs to go back to Wimbledon 2025 to find the last time she made a major quarterfinal. It has been a struggle in 2026 for Kenin, but she should take care of business against Williams, who has not won a tennis match this year.
Marta Kostyuk has been one of the breakout stars of 2026 in women’s tennis. She has made back-to-back major semifinals this summer and won her first career WTA 1000 title. Kostyuk is playing well coming into the US Open, having just made the quarterfinals in Cincinnati and the Round of 16 in Canada. She is poised for a great showing here in New York, starting with her match against Storm Hunter.
Despite having the best name in the sport, Storm Hunter is not real competition for Kostyuk. Hunter did well to make it through the qualifiers to make this main draw, but she should struggle against Kostyuk. Hunter has been a great doubles player throughout her career, but has never found the same success in singles. In fact, Hunter has never won a singles match at the US Open before. These two have only faced off once before, and that came all the way back in 2020. While it’s not recent history, Kostyuk blanked Hunter 6-0, 6-0 in that meeting. Kostyuk should dominate again in this match.
