The 2026 US Open is down to the last stretch of the first round, and Coco Gauff is scheduled to make her tournament debut on Tuesday. That puts the No. 4 player in the draw among a small group of women whose first matches now become the day’s main focus.
Only a handful of matches remain before the event reaches the final 64 on each side, and Tuesday is also the debut day for No. 5 Mirra Andreeva and No. 2 Elena Rybakina. That matters because the tournament has already produced far more noise on the men’s side, where No. 10 Arthur Fils fell in four sets to an unranked opponent and Novak Djokovic lost to Mariano Navone.
So far, the women’s draw has not delivered nearly as many upsets, which is part of why the first matches for Andreeva, Gauff and Rybakina are drawing attention. A loss from any of them would stand out immediately, not because the tournament is late in its opening round, but because each sits high enough in the draw that an early exit would rewrite the conversation around the women’s bracket.
For Gauff, the timing is the story. Her first match is coming as the tournament moves from the opening round toward the final 64, when every result starts to carry more weight and the field begins to sort itself into favorites and survivors. What remains unanswered is the opponent she will face when she steps on court Tuesday, but the stage around that match is already set.
