US Open qualifying watch: Fan Week turns to mixed doubles and British interest

The US Open has not hit full main-draw chaos yet, but New York is already buzzing. Qualifying is underway, Fan Week is in full swing, and the first big-name mixed doubles matches are giving fans their first proper taste of the fortnight ahead.

What is confirmed today The official US Open schedule lists Tuesday 25 August as Fan Week Day 3. Arthur Ashe Stadium is being used for mixed doubles, with Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic scheduled against Katerina Siniakova and Britain’s Henry Patten from 11:00am New York time, which is 3:00pm in the UK. There is more British interest later on Arthur Ashe. Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz are listed against Erin Routliffe and Britain’s Lloyd Glasspool not before 2:00pm New York time. It is exactly the kind of Fan Week pairing the US Open likes: star power, doubles specialists, and a crowd-friendly format before the singles main draw takes over.

Qualifying remains the serious business For players outside the direct-entry line, this part of the tournament is already high pressure. A Grand Slam qualifying draw can reshape a career in three matches: prize money, ranking points, a main-draw place and the chance to face one of the sport’s biggest names all sit on the other side of the final qualifying round. The public tournament feeds checked for this roundup did not return confirmed US Open singles results for the 24-25 August window, so there is no reliable basis here to call specific qualifying winners or upsets. That is worth saying plainly. If a result is not confirmed, it should not be treated as fact.

British interest to follow Patten and Glasspool give British fans immediate mixed doubles storylines on 25 August, and the wider British singles picture should become clearer as qualifying progresses and the main-draw schedule is finalised. Jack Draper, Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter, Cameron Norrie and the British qualifiers or wildcards around the entry lists will be the names to track as the tournament moves from Fan Week into Grand Slam mode. The practical implication is simple: today’s results and scheduling updates matter because they decide who gets through qualifying, who earns a rest day, and which first-round match-ups become the early headline traps when the main draw begins.

What to watch next The main US Open tournament calendar in the For The Love of Tennis app lists the 2026 US Open in New York from 31 August on outdoor hard courts. Between now and then, watch for three things: confirmed qualifiers, the publication of first-round singles match times, and whether any British player lands a winnable early route or a brutal show-court assignment. For fans following day by day, the sensible approach is to treat Fan Week as the warm-up, qualifying as the jeopardy, and 31 August as the point where the main draw narrative properly starts.