{"id":495228,"date":"2025-08-21T15:33:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=495228"},"modified":"2025-08-21T15:33:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T19:33:23","slug":"alcaraz-and-djokovic-face-tough-challenges-from-us-opens-1st-round","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/alcaraz-and-djokovic-face-tough-challenges-from-us-opens-1st-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Alcaraz and Djokovic face tough challenges from US Open&#8217;s 1st round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defending champion Jannik Sinner will open his US Open title defense against Vit Kopriva, as the men\u2019s draw in New York sets up a potential series of high-profile clashes.<\/p>\n<p>World No. 1 Sinner, who lifted the crown at Flushing Meadows last year, could face Denis Shapovalov in the early rounds, with a possible last-16 meeting against Tommy Paul. In the quarterfinals, the Italian may run into Jack Draper, the man who stunned him in last year\u2019s semifinals. A semifinal showdown against third seed Alexander Zverev, who begins against Alejandro Tabilo, also looms large.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side of the draw, 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic begins with a tricky test against young prospect Lerner Thien. The Serb\u2019s path could lead to a clash with Holger Rune in the round of 16 and a quarterfinal against fourth seed Taylor Fritz.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It\u2019s not the journey, it\u2019s the destination.<\/p>\n<p>Are Jannik and Aryna repeating as champions? \ud83c\udfc6 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vIdxRPJg49\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/vIdxRPJg49<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 US Open Tennis (@usopen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/usopen\/status\/1958574085023076824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 21, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Carlos Alcaraz, winner of the Cincinnati Open from last weekend, starts his campaign against American big-server Reilly Opelka. The Spaniard is projected to face Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round, with the possibility of a mouthwatering semifinal against Djokovic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defending champion Jannik Sinner will open his US Open title defense against Vit Kopriva, as the men\u2019s draw in New York sets up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":495229,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[8405,16732,16740,4051],"news_category":[16714,16715],"gn_keywords":[17857,17855,1891,613],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"Both players could face in the semi-final stage, Sinner with an easy path","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495230,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495228\/revisions\/495230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495228"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=495228"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=495228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}