The list of absentees at the 2026 US Open has grown again after two more players withdrew before their opening matches were due to begin.

Main draw action at the 146th edition of the tournament began on Sunday, although several first-round matches remain unfinished because of rain interruptions on Day 3. The event, the fourth and final Grand Slam of the season, is being held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York City.

A total of 24 players have now withdrawn from the men’s and women’s singles draws combined.

Jannik Sinner, Victoria Mboko, Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper were among the 18 players who withdrew before the draws were released on Thursday. Since then, six more have pulled out before their first-round matches, with Thanasi Kokkinakis and Tereza Valentova the latest to be ruled out through injury.

Kokkinakis had been scheduled to meet world No 13 Rafael Jodar in the men’s draw, while Valentova was set to face 25th-ranked Anastasia Potapova in the women’s event.

Casper Ruud, Joao Fonseca, Ugo Humbert and Marin Cilic were the other players to withdraw before their opening-round matches.

The men’s list now includes Sinner, Ruud, Fonseca, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Ugo Humbert, Ethan Quinn, Sebastian Korda, Holger Rune, Marin Cilic, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Gabriel Diallo, Emilio Nava, Patrick Kypson and Jack Draper. On the women’s side, the withdrawals are Victoria Mboko, Hailey Baptiste, Jaqueline Cristian, Tereza Valentova, Emma Raducanu, Irina-Camelia Begu, Jil Teichmann, Ajla Tomljanovic, Laura Siegemund and Varvara Gracheva.

Several replacements have already been listed across both draws, with alternates and lucky losers stepping in where possible.

By day three of the US Open, most of round one had been completed, with only a few loose ends still left to settle after a busy stretch at the Championships.

There were hard-fought wins and one-sided results across the board. Fifth seed and French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli recovered from a poor opening to edge Francisco Comesana in five sets. Iga Swiatek continued her strong form by defeating Xiyu Wang while dropping only five games, and Arthur Fery found himself outclassed by 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti.

On the women’s side, the biggest upset so far came when 12th seed Belinda Bencic surrendered a third-set lead and fell to Yulia Putintseva 3-6 7-5 6-3. Coco Gauff, meanwhile, handled the dangerous Zeynep Sonmez to keep her own US Open campaign moving forward.

Alexander Zverev also had to work for it. The Roland Garros winner trailed by two sets to one before defeating Lorenzo Sonego in a match that did not finish until just before 2am. Alex Eala impressed with a 6-1 6-2 win over Mary Stoiana in front of a lively Louis Armstrong Stadium crowd, while Gael Monfils, who turned 40 on Tuesday, beat Adolfo Vallejo in four entertaining sets.

Elsewhere in the tournament, attention turned to several talking points from the last 24 hours. Carlos Alcaraz’s use of different balls at the US Open drew discussion after comments from Tim Henman and Naomi Broady. Gauff also spoke about the progress she has made with her serve, saying, “Last year I knew all eyes were going to be on the serve,” and later, “It feels good to come into a tournament feeling confident on that shot finally.”

There were also concerns over Elena Rybakina’s movement after her win over Thea Frodin, while Zverev said of his late-night battle, “Actually, I’m happy that I won this kind of battle. This is exactly the match that I needed…” Monfils, fittingly, summed up his own flair with the line, “Two sets to one, a break up, happy… why not? I won’t hit many more to be honest. Why not? Yes, it’s harder. Somehow, it produces more happiness, more joy for me.”

Andy Roddick has suggested Elena Rybakina would not be competing at the US Open if the world No 1 ranking were not within reach.

The second seed advanced to round two on Tuesday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over 17-year-old wildcard Thea Frodin, but Roddick remains unconvinced that all is well after Rybakina withdrew from the Cincinnati Open last month because of an Achilles tendon problem.

The 2003 US Open champion, speaking on the latest episode of Served, felt Rybakina’s movement looked restricted against the American, even though her striking through the ball remained outstanding.

He said on the latest episode of Served, “ Rybakina, it was strange. She hit the ball amazingly well, was kind of not moving for balls. I think she’s hurt.

“She would like bleed to the corners and then like not urgently move in, right? There were these little things where she was kind of protecting.

“So I don’t know where she’s at. She hit the ball perfectly, like served and returned. It was unbelievable. Maybe she’s freed up because she knows she can’t… the biggest gift you can give a tennis player is clarity. Like even if she’s injured, she knows she has to do X, Y, and Z to even win it all.

“I don’t think she’s completely healthy, though. It seemed like there was a conscious choice not to like make quick bursts. The only chance she had and she executed it perfectly was ball striking. Middle of the court, try to hit a winner.”

Rybakina still had to work through a competitive effort from Frodin, who was 12 when she became Serena Williams’ body double in the 2021 King Richard biopic.

Even so, the result did little to change the bigger picture. Rybakina will take the No 1 ranking if she reaches the semi-finals in Flushing Meadows. If she falls short of that target, Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff remain in contention to finish the tournament atop the rankings.

That possibility, Roddick believes, is a major reason she is still in New York.

“I also don’t think she’d be playing this tournament if she was like seven in the world,” he added. “I think she wants that number one ranking and rightfully so, like you live with it forever, right? Can’t go much higher than that.”

Rybakina has said she feels “okay” and is due next to face Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, who is currently ranked 92nd but has a career-best position of 40.