- Serena – in a Tough Quarter Filled with Americans – Plays in Prime Time, Followed by Nadal-Coric
- Intriguing First-Round Matchups: Nadal-Coric, Sharapova-Gavrilova, Venus-Puig, Stevens-Vandeweghe
- Tuesday: Federer, Murray-Kyrgios, Wawrinka, Halep, Wozniacki, Kvitova & More
- First Ball to Last Ball, Now Exclusive to ESPN – Action First Week Begins at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN3
- SportsCenter live from US Open Monday 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. ET
ESPN’s first exclusive US Open starts Monday, Aug. 31, with a slate full of intriguing first-round matchups from the top half of both the men’s and women’s draws, highlighted by a prime-time doubleheader on Arthur Ashe Stadium at 7 p.m. on ESPN2:
- Top seed and three-time defending champion Serena Williams plays Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia in the first step – of seven required – to achieve the sport’s first calendar year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988
- Two-time champ and No. 8 Rafael Nadal has a tough first opponent, the highly touted 18-year old Borna Coric of Crotia who defeated Nadal in their only meeting – in Basel a year ago.
The top half of each draw will play Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Sunday; the bottom half plays Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday-Labor Day Monday.
Monday’s other top women’s matches:
- 3 and 2007 winner Maria Sharapova has a tough first-round opponent, 21-year Daria Gavrilova (ranked No. 37). They have split the two matches they have played.
- 23 and two-time champ Venus Williams, 35, will play 21-year old Monica Puig of Puerto Rico (on Ashe, not before 1 p.m.).
- Americans 22-year old Sloane Stephens (No. 29) and 23-year old CoCo Vandeweghe will square off.
Monday’s other top men’s matches:
- 1 Djokovic, the 2011 US Open champ, plays Joao Souza of Brazil (follows V.Williams-Puig on Ashe).
- 10 Milos Raonic, the big server from Canada, faces American Tim Smyczek.
- The defending champion, No. 9 Marin Cilic, and 2014 finalist, No. 4 Kei Nishikori, are both in action.
- 25 Fabio Fognini of Italy plays American Steve Johnson.
ESPN3’s 11-court offering – plus a feed in Spanish, one with three windows showing Ashe/Armstrong/Grandstand, and a feed with whip-around coverage of the first two hours of play – starts at 11 a.m. ET. ESPN’s coverage starts at 1 p.m., transitioning to ESPN2 at 6 p.m. ESPN’s extensive daily coverage will continue through the Women’s Championship on Saturday, Sept. 12, and the Men’s Championship on Sunday, Sept. 13.
Serena’s quarter of the draw is not only fraught with potential landmines – No. 8 Karolina Pliskova, No. 12 Belinda Bencic (the 18-year old Swiss who defeated Williams recently in Toronto) and No. 15 Agnieszka Radwanska, it is loaded with Americans: No. 19 Madison Keys, No. 23 Venus Williams and No. 29 Sloane Stephens, plus Madison Brengle, Irini Falconi, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and CoCo Vandeweghe. The Williams sisters could meet in the quarterfinals.
In addition, the day play begins, SportsCenter on the Road – the 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. edition – will be on site with co-hosts Chris McKendry (a US Open host for ESPN) and Jay Crawford.
ESPN2’s live coverage of the opening Monday night will include the traditional Opening Night ceremony, highlighted by a performance from Arthur Ashe Stadium by multi-platinum singing artist Josh Groban. He will be performing songs off his current album, Stages. Here, Groban and ESPN’s Patrick McEnroe prepare for how the singer can take part in the 2015 US Open: http://www.usopen.org/videos/.
Looking Ahead to Tuesday
The remaining first-round matches will be played Tuesday – including five-time champion No. 2 Roger Federer against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, 2012 champ and No. 3 Andy Murray who faces controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios and No. 5 Stan Wawrinka of Swizterland playing Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain on the men’s side. Women in action those days include No. 2 Simona Halep (vs. Marina Erakovic of New Zealand), No. 4 Caroline Wozniacki (vs. American Jamie Loeb), No. 5 Petra Kvitov (vs. Laura Siegemund), No. 6 Lucie Safarova (vs. Lesia Tsurenko), No. 9 Garbine Muguruza, the Wimbledon finalist (vs. Carina Witthoeft of Germany) and two-time finalist Victoria Azarenka at No. 20 facing Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic.
ESPN has televised the US Open since 2009. An 11-year agreement with the USTA for exclusivity was announced in May 2013. A complete look at ESPN’s plans for the 2015 US Open including the daily schedule ( http://es.pn/1ECwZws ), a look at new technology ( http://es.pn/1MzW0yM ) and a conference call on programming and production plans ( http://es.pn/1PoHn0D ).
ESPN & the 2015 US Open
Date | Time (ET) | Event | Network(s) |
Mon Aug 31 | 10:45 a.m.
1 p.m. |
US Open First Round | ESPN3
ESPN |
6 p.m. | US Open First Round | ESPN2 | |
Tue Sep 1 | 10:45 a.m.
1 p.m. |
US Open First Round | ESPN3
ESPN |
Wed Sep 2 | 10:45 a.m.
1 p.m. |
US Open Second Round | ESPN3
ESPN |
6 p.m. | US Open Second Round | ESPN2 | |
Thur Sep 3 | 10:45 a.m.
1 p.m. |
US Open Second Round | ESPN3
ESPN |
5 p.m. | US Open Second Round | ESPN2 | |
Fri Sep 4 | 10:45 a.m.
1 p.m. |
US Open Third Round | ESPN3
ESPN |
6 p.m. | US Open Third Round | ESPN2 | |
Sat Sep 5 | 10:45 a.m.
11 a.m. |
US Open Third Round | ESPN3
ESPN2 |
Sun Sep 6 | 10:45 a.m.
11 a.m. |
US Open Round of 16 | ESPN3
ESPN2 |
Mon Sept 7 | 10:45 a.m.
11 a.m. |
US Open Round of 16 | ESPN3
ESPN2 |
Tue Sep 8 | 10:45 a.m.
Noon |
US Open Quarterfinals | ESPN3
ESPN |
Wed Sep 9 | 10:45 a.m.
11 a.m. |
US Open Quarterfinals | ESPN3
ESPN |
8 p.m. | US Open Men’s Quarterfinals | ESPN2 | |
Thur Sep 10 | Noon
7 p.m. |
US Open Doubles Matches
US Open Women’s Semifinals |
ESPN3
ESPN |
Fri Sep 11 | Noon | US Open Mixed Doubles Championship | ESPN3 |
3 p.m. | US Open Men’s Semifinals | ESPN / ESPN3 | |
Sat Sep 12 | Noon | US Open Men’s Doubles Championship | ESPN3 |
3 p.m. | US Open Women’s Championship | ESPN / ESPN3
ESPN Deportes |
|
Sun Sep 13 | Noon | US Open Women’s Doubles Championship | ESPN3 |
3:30 p.m. | US Open Men’s Championship Blue Carpet Special | ESPN | |
4 p.m. | US Open Men’s Championship | ESPN |
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