Carlos Alcaraz has fallen to No. 3 in the ATP Rankings and is set to be seeded third at the US Open, a position that could put him in the path of top opposition earlier than he would prefer at a Grand Slam.

The seven-time major champion has already missed the Madrid Open, Italian Open, French Open, Queen’s Club Championship and Wimbledon because of injury, and he is also absent from the upcoming Canadian Open. His return now appears close, though, with the Spaniard named on the entry lists for both the Cincinnati Open and the US Open.

Before the setback, Alcaraz sat at No. 2 and was locked in a close fight for No. 1 with Jannik Sinner. Over the past three months, however, he has lost more than 5,000 ranking points, with the biggest losses coming at the French Open (2,000), Wimbledon (1,300) and Italian Open (1,000).

With Alexander Zverev’s French Open title changing the picture above him, the 23-year-old will return in Cincinnati from third place and faces a difficult task if he is to climb back to No. 2 before New York. Alcaraz is only 320 points behind Zverev, but he will also lose 1,000 points in Cincinnati as the defending champion.

Zverev has 400 points to defend at the Canadian Open and another 400 in Cincinnati, so Alcaraz must defend his title in Mason and hope the German exits early at both events.

At Flushing Meadows, Sinner is already secure as the top seed, while Zverev is likely to be seeded No. 2. That arrangement could leave Alcaraz facing Sinner in the semi-finals and Zverev in the final.

The recent history between Sinner and Alcaraz underlines how often they have been meeting late in events. Their last eight matches have all come in finals, and the last time they met before a final was at the 2024 French Open, when they played in the semi-finals.

Alcaraz could also be drawn against Novak Djokovic earlier than usual. The 24-time Grand Slam winner is currently seventh in the rankings, which means the two could meet in the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows.

Jack Draper and Grigor Dimitrov are not yet guaranteed a place in the 2026 US Open main draw, with both players outside the direct entry cut and now reliant on qualifying or a wildcard.

The pair have slipped out of the ATP top 100, leaving them on the alternate list for Flushing Meadows. Dimitrov is currently ranked No 142, with Draper five places behind him. World No 101 Francisco Comesana is the lowest-ranked player to earn direct entry, while more than 40 players sit ahead of Draper and Dimitrov in the queue.

Draper’s season has been heavily disrupted. He has played only 13 top-level matches in 2026 after beginning the year late because of an arm injury that kept him out of the Australian Open. He later picked up a knee injury during the build-up to the French Open. Draper eventually returned at the Eastbourne Open, where he reached the semi-final, but he was then forced to miss Wimbledon because of his long-standing arm issue. After starting the year at No 10, he now sits at No 147, though he could climb a few places soon with a run of events scheduled, including next week’s Washington DC Open and the Brownsburg ATP 75 Challenger.

Dimitrov has also endured a difficult year. He lost in the first round of the Australian Open and fell in qualifying at Roland Garros. A wildcard brought him into Wimbledon, where he reached the fourth round before losing to Arthur Fery from Great Britain.

Fery’s Wimbledon surge helped lift him into the top 40, and he is now ranked No 36. That rise has earned him a direct Grand Slam main-draw place for the first time.

Holger Rune is another notable name on the entry list as he tries to return after the Achilles injury he suffered last October. Stan Wawrinka does not appear on the list.

The draw is led by Jannik Sinner, followed by Alexander Zverev, Carlos Alcaraz, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Alex de Minaur, Ben Shelton, Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Flavio Cobolli and Taylor Fritz. Alcaraz remains the defending champion after beating Sinner in last year’s final.

The 2026 US Open entry list has been published, and Emma Raducanu is included as she targets a return from injury at the final Grand Slam of the season. The most notable absentee is Victoria Mboko.

Raducanu has not played on the WTA Tour since finishing runner-up at the Queen’s Club Championship. A stress fracture in her right shin forced her out of the Nottingham Open, Eastbourne Open and Wimbledon, and she was later ruled out of the WTA 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati as well.

Her place on the entry list does not guarantee a start, though it does suggest she remains in contention for Flushing Meadows. The same uncertainty surrounded Wimbledon, where she held a press conference on the Sunday before the tournament and said she hoped to play the following day before withdrawing hours later.

If she does compete in New York, match sharpness could be an issue. Unless she plays the Monterrey Open, the final warm-up event from 23-29 August, she would reach the US Open without hard-court match practice.

Mboko will miss a second straight major because of a knee injury. The world No 12 picked up the problem during her opening singles match at Queen’s Club, then withdrew from Wimbledon and will also miss her title defence at the Canadian Open and the Cincinnati event.

Hailey Baptiste remains sidelined too after damaging her anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her left knee during the second round of the French Open. That setback came after she reached the Madrid Open semi-final and climbed to No 25 in the WTA Rankings.

Varvara Gracheva is the other top-100 player absent, with an ACL injury sustained in training in March.

At the top of the draw, Aryna Sabalenka heads the field and is followed by Elena Rybakina, with the rest of the top 10 also present. Anastasia Zakharova is the final direct entry by ranking at world No 102, while Ella Seidel is first alternate. Five players have used a special ranking: Lois Boisson, Irina-Camelia Begu, Aoi Ito, Jil Teichmann and Mananchaya Sawangkaew.