The 2026 US Open is edging closer, but the season’s last Grand Slam has already lost two more notable entrants as the withdrawal list continues to grow.

Main-draw singles play at the 146th edition of the event begins on Sunday 30 August and runs through Sunday 13 September, when the men’s final is scheduled to close the tournament. The hard-court major is held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York. Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka are the defending men’s and women’s champions.

At present, seven players have withdrawn across the men’s and women’s main-draw singles entry lists.

Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion who famously lifted the title as an 18-year-old qualifier ranked 150th, will not play this year because of a stress fracture in her right leg. The issue has kept the 23-year-old Brit out of action since her Queen’s Club Championships final defeat in June. She had already withdrawn from Toronto and Cincinnati, and she has not yet commented on pulling out of the US Open.

Sebastian Korda also confirmed his absence after revealing last week that he had undergone back surgery. His withdrawal was confirmed on Monday.

“It’s been four months off-court managing pain in my back with a lot of pressure on my sciatica,” Korda wrote in an Instagram post.

“After different treatments we decided to have a swift surgery that has finally relieved the pain. What a relief.

“Now it is time to recover, heal and get back to work. Thanks everyone for the support. See ya’ll soon!”

The 26-year-old American has not competed since his four-set loss to Martin Landaluce at the Miami Open in March, a match that came after he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the previous round.

Raducanu is now the sixth woman on the withdrawal list, while Korda remains the only man to pull out so far.

Alex Eala’s rise on the WTA Tour moved into a new phase with her first title at the Washington Open.

The breakthrough had been building for some time. Eala had already collected two WTA 125 Challenger titles, but her run in Washington offered a more forceful statement that she can compete with the best on the sport’s biggest stages.

Her path to the trophy was especially impressive. In the WTA 500 event, Eala defeated Jessica Pegula in the final and also beat Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka, Leylah Fernandez, and Qinwen Zheng in the United States capital. It was a title run built on major wins and sustained quality from start to finish.

That success has already pushed her to world No 20 in the WTA rankings, and there is scope for that position to climb further during the North American hardcourt swing. She is defending only 70 ranking points before the end of the US Open, which gives her a strong platform to keep adding points if her current level continues.

Eala has drawn praise from several prominent figures, including Rafael Nadal, and her coach, Joan Bosch, has now added his own voice. As reported by Dyan Castillejo on Instagram, Bosch said: “I can tell you that I’m super happy because this was the goal of the year. She could do it, she deserves it.

“She came back from yesterday’s tough match,” he added. “ Jessica Pegula was playing amazing. Alex is a very good champion and she deserves this win.”

Bosch has been part of Eala’s journey since her time at the Rafael Nadal Academy. His background includes close work with Nadal there, seven years alongside former world No 1 Carlos Moya, and earlier coaching experience with Jaume Munar before he became established on the ATP Tour.

Eala’s recent form suggests this may only be the beginning. In the last three months, she reached the fourth round of Wimbledon, won the Birmingham Open, lifted the Washington Open trophy, and made the semi finals of the Berlin Open. If she carries that momentum into the US Open, she will arrive with real belief.

Alex Eala capped a memorable week at the Washington Open by overturning Jessica Pegula in a dramatic final that was delayed by thunderstorm disruption. The WTA 500 title match was pushed back a day, and when play resumed on Monday, Pegula held a set and had the second set on serve, putting her in position as the clear favorite.

Instead, the match shifted sharply. Pegula’s level dipped, Eala seized control, and the Filipina produced a composed finish to win the last two sets 6-4, 6-0. The result handed Eala the first WTA title of her career and left Pegula to assess a performance shaped by unforced errors and difficulty handling Eala’s serve.

Pegula spoke about that challenge in her post-match press conference, where she described how the final unfolded from her perspective.

“For whatever reason it felt like I was returning much better yesterday than I was today. I do feel like today she was going more for percentage than trying to go bigger and hit her spot, so I was seeing less second serves,” said Pegula.

“In the warm-up, I think everyone that plays her would probably be working on a slower serve because her serve is definitely slower and you always practice how the person plays, so if they have a big serve I am practicing with people who are hitting their serve bigger, so I was trying to do more of that today which didn’t really seem to help very much!”

Both players now move on to the Canadian Open, with their campaigns expected to begin on Wednesday’s order of play. Eala, now world No 20 after her Washington victory, will meet Alycia Parks in the second round after a first-round bye. Parks advanced by beating qualifier Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva and enters the match ranked 41 places below Eala, though she already owns a win over the 21-year-old, having beaten her 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open at the start of the 2026 season.

Pegula will try to respond against Magdalena Frech in Toronto after the Pole defeated Léolia Jeanjean in her opening match.