Nishikori was injured in May and pulled out of the French Open. The 2014 U.S. Open runner-up from Japan returned earlier this month for a first-round loss in Cincinnati but said his back isn't healthy enough to play in New York.

Gauff has not appeared confident with her serve since beating Aryna Sabalenka on clay earlier this summer. She won three matches in the US Open tuneup earlier at the Cincinnati Open, but lost to Italy's Jasmine Paolini in the fourth round. Last week in Cincinnati, Gauff said she's practicing patience on tour the rest of the season.

After a rough start to the year, Świątek (+310) is now basically neck and neck odds-wise with Sabalenka (+290), who is, again, the defending US Open champion. If anyone can unseat Sabalenka, it sure feels like Świątek is the most likely to do it.

The following are some of the other contenders for the men's singles title at the U.S. Open, which begins on Sunday:

The newly renovated tournament brought out a more practice courts, upgraded hospitality, and a record attendance of fans.

Carlos Alcaraz seemingly still plans to play the US Open mixed doubles with Emma Raducanu. There had been some question marks about whether he would pull out due to reaching the final of the

Raducanu has laughed off rumours of a love interest.

Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev are set to play along with Iga Swiatek and 45-year-old veteran Venus Williams when the US Open mixed doubles takes centre stage like never before. Instead of being crammed in amid the singles and doubles matches at the main draw event,