By Cole Gallagher / August 30, 2026
US Open 2026 · Men’s Singles First Round · Aug 30 – Sept 1 · USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows, Queens, NY · Hard Court
🎾 Felix Auger-Aliassime vs Rinky Hijikata 🎾
First-round matches are spread across three days. The exact day and court are set by the daily order of play.
The draw is out and Canada’s No. 1 has drawn an unseeded Australian for his opener at Flushing Meadows. Felix Auger-Aliassime is the No. 3 seed at the 2026 US Open, the highest seeding he has ever carried into this tournament, and he begins against Rinky Hijikata in what will be the first meeting between the two on tour. Operator-by-operator comparisons are in our top betting sites guide.
Odds Comparison
| Sportsbook | Auger-Aliassime | Hijikata |
| Sports Interaction | Check Odds → | Check Odds → |
| Betovo | Check Odds → | Check Odds → |
| Bet365 | Check Odds → | Check Odds → |
| Tonybet | Check Odds → | Check Odds → |
| Betway | Check Odds → | Check Odds → |
Total Games (Over/Under)
Correct Score in Sets
Player Analysis
Felix Auger-Aliassime
The Montrealer arrives as the No. 3 seed, and that number is not a courtesy. His run to the semi-finals here last year is what launched the twelve months that put him firmly inside the world’s top five, and at Roland-Garros this year he became the first Canadian singles player to reach the quarter-finals of all four Grand Slams. That is a durability credential rather than a highlight reel, and durability is exactly what you are buying when you back a seed in the first week of a major.
The caveat is that the US Open has been genuinely awkward for him. In eight appearances he has lost in the first round four times. The flip side is that when he does get through, he goes deep: the last sixteen on three of those four occasions and the semi-finals twice. There is very little middle ground in his New York record, which is worth remembering before you treat a straight-sets win as a formality.
Key Storyline: No. 3 seed, a semi-finalist here twelve months ago, and the first Canadian to make the quarter-finals of every major
Rinky Hijikata
Hijikata is unseeded and arrives without a previous meeting against Auger-Aliassime to draw on, which cuts both ways. The Australian is a former Australian Open doubles champion, and that pedigree tells you something real about his return game and his comfort in the forecourt. Players who have won a major in doubles tend to be better than their singles ranking suggests at chip-and-charge patterns and at reading a big server’s pattern on the second serve.
Against a top-three seed over best-of-five, the maths are still unkind. Hijikata’s realistic route is to make the opening set a scrap, get Auger-Aliassime into the tie-break territory where the Canadian has historically been beatable at this venue, and hope the first-round nerves that have caught him out four times in New York show up again.
Key Storyline: A former Australian Open doubles champion with nothing to lose, meeting the Canadian for the first time
Key Betting Angles
Two things pull against each other here. The ranking and seeding gap is large enough that the match-winner market will offer very little, and the sensible engagement is with a set handicap or the games total rather than the outright winner. But Auger-Aliassime’s specific record in this specific first round is the single best argument against laying a heavy handicap: four opening-round exits in eight visits is not a small sample quirk, it is a pattern.
Best-of-five also protects the better player. Hijikata winning a set is a live outcome. Hijikata winning three is a different proposition entirely, and the price should reflect that gap rather than lumping the two together.
Our Prediction
Cole’s Pick: Felix Auger-Aliassime to win, but not in straight sets
The gap in level over five sets should be decisive, and Auger-Aliassime has been the more reliable player at the majors over the last year. What stops us going to the straight-sets line is his own history in this round at this tournament, plus the fact that neither player has seen the other across a net before. First meetings tend to produce one loose set while the better player works out the puzzle.
Confidence: high on the match winner, low on the straight-sets handicap
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Cole Gallagher covers soccer betting for WorldCupBetting.ca, specialising in match predictions, odds analysis and tournament futures. Based in Toronto, he has followed the Canadian men’s national team since their 2022 qualifying campaign and brings a line-shopping, data-first approach to every pick.