Biggest Upsets of the 2026 US Open: Live Tracker

The biggest upsets of the 2026 US Open have wrecked one draw and left the other untouched. Twenty nine of the 32 men’s seeds are gone, including defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, beaten by Ben Shelton in a quarterfinal that finished at 3.33am.

In the women’s draw the top four seeds are the four semifinalists. Every upset is logged below with the score and the round.

Last updated: Thursday, September 10, before the women’s semifinals. Men’s semifinals are Friday, September 11.

Biggest Upsets of the 2026 US Open

Upset · Women's Singles · Round of 16

Qinwen ZhengWorld No. 121def.Iga SwiatekWorld No. 8

Final

Iga Swiatek53

Qinwen Zheng76◀

Round of 16

Upset · Men's Singles · Round of 128

Yunchaokete BuWorld No. 124def.Rafael JodarWorld No. 13

Final

Rafael Jodar211

Yunchaokete Bu666◀

Round of 128

Upset · Men's Singles · Round of 64

Dane SweenyWorld No. 123def.Lorenzo MusettiWorld No. 14

Final

Dane Sweeny3666◀

Lorenzo Musetti6122

Round of 64

Upset · Women's Singles · Round of 32

Qinwen ZhengWorld No. 121def.Madison KeysWorld No. 24

Final

Madison Keys66³5

Qinwen Zheng17⁷7◀

Round of 32

Upset · Women's Singles · Round of 32

Taylor TownsendWorld No. 96def.Diana ShnaiderWorld No. 16

Final

Taylor Townsend66³6◀

Diana Shnaider27⁷3

Round of 32

Upset · Women's Singles · Round of 128

Taylor TownsendWorld No. 96def.Maja ChwalinskaWorld No. 22

Final

Maja Chwalinska23

Taylor Townsend66◀

Round of 128

Upset · Women's Singles · Round of 128

Yulia PutintsevaWorld No. 84def.Belinda BencicWorld No. 12

Final

Yulia Putintseva476◀

Belinda Bencic653

Round of 128

Upset · Men's Singles · Round of 64

Benjamin BonziWorld No. 97def.Ignacio BuseWorld No. 30

Final

Benjamin Bonzi67⁷6◀

Ignacio Buse26⁴0

Round of 64

Upset · Men's Singles · Round of 64

Botic Van de ZandschulpWorld No. 70def.Alex de MinaurWorld No. 7

Final

Botic Van de Zandschulp676◀

Alex de Minaur452

Round of 64

Upset · Women's Singles · Round of 128

Kamilla RakhimovaWorld No. 92def.Barbora KrejčikováWorld No. 29

Final

Kamilla Rakhimova7⁷6◀

Barbora Krejčiková6⁴2

Round of 128

Detected automatically: top-32 players beaten by opponents ranked at least 10 places below them.

Seeds Out at the 2026 US Open

Each singles draw started with 128 players and 32 seeds, set from the ATP and WTA rankings of Monday, August 24. The official draw sheets at usopen.org carry every result.

	Men’s singles	Women’s singles
Seeds gone	29 of 32	28 of 32
Logged as upsets	16	9
Seeds left	3	4
Highest seed out	No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz	No. 5 Mirra Andreeva
Current round	Semifinals	Semifinals

The two draws could not have diverged further. The men lost their defending champion, a five time major winner and three of the top six before the quarterfinals. The women lost nobody who mattered: seeds 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the last four standing.

One quirk shaped the men’s numbers from the start. Jannik Sinner withdrew with a right knee injury, his first missed major since 2019, so every man was seeded one place above his ATP ranking. Top seed Alexander Zverev is world No. 2.

Biggest Upsets of the 2026 US Open So Far

Shelton over Alcaraz is the biggest result of the fortnight. The eighth seed beat the defending champion 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10-6) in four hours and 28 minutes, closing it out in a deciding tiebreak at 3.33am, the latest finish in US Open history. Alcaraz had won all their previous meetings.

Navone over Djokovic set the tone on day one. Mariano Navone won 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in four hours and 36 minutes. Djokovic had never lost before the third round at the US Open and had not lost a Grand Slam opener since the 2006 Australian Open, ending a run of 78 straight first round wins.

Zheng Qinwen’s run is the women’s story. Back through qualifying, she erased a 5-0 deficit to beat 22nd seed Madison Keys 1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5, then did it again to beat eighth seed Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-3. She became the first qualifier in the women’s quarterfinals here since Emma Raducanu in 2021, and the first qualifier ever to beat Swiatek at a major, before Elena Rybakina stopped her.

Khachanov over Auger Aliassime started a run of its own. The unseeded Russian beat the third seed 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and has reached the semifinals without facing a seed higher than 14.

Men’s upsets in full

Seed	Player	Beaten by	Round	Score
2	Carlos Alcaraz	Ben Shelton, seeded 8	QF	6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(10)
3	Felix Auger Aliassime	Karen Khachanov	R2	6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2
4	Novak Djokovic	Mariano Navone	R1	7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
6	Alex de Minaur	Botic van de Zandschulp	R2	6-4, 7-5, 6-2
10	Arthur Fils	Stefanos Tsitsipas	R1	4-6, 7-6(3), 6-1, 6-4
12	Rafael Jodar	Bu Yunchaokete, lucky loser	R1	6-2, 6-1, 6-1
13	Lorenzo Musetti	Dane Sweeny, wild card	R2	3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2
14	Learner Tien	Karen Khachanov	R4	7-5, 4-6, 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-4
16	Brandon Nakashima	Alex Michelsen	R2	6-3, 6-4, 6-4
18	Jiri Lehecka	Stefanos Tsitsipas	R3	2-6, 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-1
23	Andrey Rublev	Daniel Merida	R2	6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4
27	Tomas Martin Etcheverry	Alex Michelsen	R4	7-6(6), 6-4, 6-4
29	Cameron Norrie	Luca Van Assche	R1	6-7(6), 6-2, 6-2, 6-3
30	Matteo Arnaldi	James Duckworth	R1	5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(8)
31	Zizou Bergs	Botic van de Zandschulp	R3	3-6, 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3
32	Ignacio Buse	Benjamin Bonzi	R2	6-2, 7-6(4), 6-0

Women’s upsets in full

Seed	Player	Beaten by	Round	Score
8	Iga Swiatek	Zheng Qinwen, qualifier	R4	7-5, 6-3
12	Belinda Bencic	Yulia Putintseva	R1	4-6, 7-5, 6-3
15	Diana Shnaider	Taylor Townsend	R3	6-2, 6-7(3), 6-3
20	Maja Chwalinska	Taylor Townsend	R1	6-2, 6-3
22	Madison Keys	Zheng Qinwen, qualifier	R3	1-6, 7-6(3), 7-5
27	Barbora Krejcikova	Kamilla Rakhimova	R1	7-6(4), 6-2
28	Sara Bejlek	Cristina Bucsa	R1	7-5, 4-6, 6-1
30	Jelena Ostapenko	Tatjana Maria	R1	4-6, 6-1, 6-2
32	Maria Sakkari	Yuliia Starodubtseva	R2	1-6, 7-6(4), 6-2

Three farewells ended early. Stan Wawrinka lost his last major match to Matteo Berrettini, Venus Williams lost to Sofia Kenin at 46 on a wild card, and Gael Monfils went out to Learner Tien in round two.

What Counts as an Upset Here

Not every seeded loss is a shock. A result is logged as an upset if it passes at least one test:

1. A seed loses to an unseeded player.
2. The ranking gap is 30 places or wider.
3. A qualifier, wild card or lucky loser beats a seed.
4. A former champion or the defending champion goes out before the semifinals.

That is why 57 seeds have gone but only 25 results appear in the tables above. The rest lost to a fellow seed, which thins a draw without shocking it. Casper Ruud withdrew with a back injury before playing and Alexander Blockx retired in his quarterfinal, so neither is logged.

Who Is Left in the Semifinals

Draw	Semifinal	When
Women	Aryna Sabalenka [1] v Jessica Pegula [3]	Thu Sep 10
Women	Coco Gauff [4] v Elena Rybakina [2]	Thu Sep 10
Men	Frances Tiafoe [11] v Ben Shelton [8]	Fri Sep 11
Men	Alexander Zverev [1] v Karen Khachanov	Fri Sep 11

An American man will play for the title. Shelton against Tiafoe is the first all American men’s semifinal here in years, and the winner gets a shot at ending a drought that runs back to Andy Roddick in 2003.

Zverev is the only survivor of the top seven. He has already won three matches in five sets and now meets Khachanov, the man who removed Auger Aliassime.

The women’s draw held. Sabalenka is chasing a third straight title, Rybakina takes the world No. 1 ranking by reaching the final, and Pegula and Gauff give the home crowd two of the four.

The Giant Killers and How Far They Got

• Karen Khachanov, semifinals. Unseeded, beat Auger Aliassime and Learner Tien, and is one win from a first major final.
• Zheng Qinwen, quarterfinals. A qualifier who beat Keys and Swiatek from 5-0 down in both, then lost to Rybakina 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
• Alex Michelsen, quarterfinals. Beat Nakashima, Daniel Merida and Etcheverry before Tiafoe edged him 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(10).
• Botic van de Zandschulp, quarterfinals. Removed de Minaur and Bergs, then lost to Zverev in straight sets.
• Taylor Townsend, fourth round. Two seeds down, Chwalinska and Shnaider, before Sabalenka ended the run.
• Stefanos Tsitsipas, fourth round. Unseeded, beat Fils and Lehecka.
• Mariano Navone, third round. Beat Djokovic and Berrettini before Etcheverry stopped him.

Why Flushing Meadows Breaks Brackets

The US Open has the loosest form book of the four majors, and the reasons are structural. The Laykold surface is quick. Night sessions run past 3am, as Shelton and Alcaraz proved. Late summer heat and, this year, three days of storms punish anyone carrying a niggle or a broken routine. A New York crowd adopts an underdog inside three games and stays with them for four hours.

The record backs it up. Emma Raducanu came through qualifying in 2021 and won the title without dropping a set, still the only qualifier to win any Grand Slam. Kim Clijsters won in 2009 as an unranked wild card in her third tournament back from retirement. This year a lucky loser beat the No. 12 seed 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, a wild card beat the No. 13 seed, a qualifier beat Swiatek, and Djokovic lost a first round he had won 78 times in a row.

How to Track the Biggest Upsets of the 2026 US Open Live

• Live scores: every match in progress, set by set.
• Seed tracker: which of the 32 seeds are still alive in each draw.
• Full bracket: the 128 player tree, advanced as results land, plus free printable draw sheets.
• Daily results: every completed score, round by round.
• Order of play: who is on which court and when.
• The draw: seed lists, matchups, withdrawals and wild cards.

The biggest upsets of the 2026 US Open have left three men’s seeds standing out of 32 and an unseeded semifinalist in Karen Khachanov, while the women’s top four have marched through untouched.

Two more days decide whether the chaos reaches the trophy. Check back after each session, because at this stage one result settles the tournament.

FAQ About the Biggest Upsets of the 2026 US Open