U.S. Open Qualifying (Or Fan Week) Extends Excitement – And Chaos – To Three Weeks

By Randy Walker

@TennisPublisher

The U.S. Open qualifying – or “Fan Week” as it has been branded by the U.S. Tennis Association – is always one of my favorite parts of the U.S. Open. A tennis career is not always defined by winning a major singles title – or any singles title – or reaching the final, semis or quarters of an event, or being part of a championship team, but just getting a chance to play in the U.S. Open is a big deal. You can always say you played in the U.S. Open when someone asks you about your career years later. Just like other athletes can say they once played Major League Baseball or in the NBA or NFL, no matter how many games, seasons they played or whether or not they won a championship. This is what the U.S. Open qualifying is all about.

As I have written before, the U.S. Open qualifying is, in a way, more dramatic and exciting to see a player rise to the top of the game, toiling in qualifying, and then see them later succeed at the higher levels. It is like a movie script, where the story doesn’t start with ultimate success, but starts with the build to success, like I compared to the movie about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the movie “The Social Network” here https://worldtennismagazine.com/why-u-s-open-qualifying-is-like-the-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-movie-the-social-network/

When the final rounds of the qualifying happens – where there are 16 men’s and 16 women’s separate qualifying finals – it’s like you have 32 ATP and WTA tournament finals all happening on one day (or on two days in 2026, because rain postponed most the finals to an extra day). Each winner of a U.S. Open qualifying final is guaranteed to earn at least $140,000 in prize money, which is what is awarded to first-round losers in the main draw.  By comparison, the winner of the ATP 250 Winston-Salem Open played concurrently to U.S. Open qualifying earns only $112,000. If you lose in the U.S. Open qualifying final, you earn $66,000 which is about the equivalent (or more) of being a runner-up an ATP or WTA Tour event.

The 2026 edition of U.S. Open qualifying was perhaps the most star-studded as you had a former U.S. Open champion, Bianca Andreescu, playing, as well as a former runner-up in Kei Nishikori, a former semifinalist in Grigor Dimitrov and the reigning Olympic gold medalist in Qinwen Zheng. Who also doesn’t like a comeback story? Think of the movie “Rocky III.” When Zheng won her final-round qualifying match, she collapsed on the court in the same way she did when she won Olympic gold. Rei Sakamoto did the same when he beat Nishikori when he clinched his first-ever U.S. Open spot. Tristan Schoolkate also collapsed on court when he won a dramatic 10-7 decisive match tiebreaker to squeak past Liam Draxl to get in the main draw. And so on and so on and so on. American Elvina Kalieva was born and raised in nearby Brooklyn and dreamed her whole life of getting a chance to play in the U.S. Open and the 23-year-old got to realize that dream by winning three three-set matches to reach the main draw.

I’m not sure if it was because of the presence of these stars – or the marketing of the USTA – that made this year’s Fan Week seem more crowded than years past. Many fans complained on social media that the crowds were too much. I certainly noticed it but, interestingly enough, I primarily noticed it in the Food Court, the Fountain Plaza (where the big stage of alternative entertainment was showcased) and in the lines for people that wanted “free stuff” from event sponsors that prevented easy walking traffic. The lines to get a free Fage Yogurt or a Spiderman comic book or bottle of Dove deodorant spray were definitely longer than the lines to get in to watch tennis! It made me question where people are there to watch and enjoy tennis or just be seen, hang out at a fun spot and get free stuff. The U.S. Open qualifying rounds used to be a place where the real connoisseur tennis fans would go to watch great but underrated high-quality tennis. Now, it has gone way beyond that.

One of the great traditions of the U.S. Open qualifying is that it is free to the public. It’s great public relations to offer to the people of New York, and also to residents of the New York borough of Queens where it is held, to offer up this opportunity. The fact that Queens has one of the most ethnical diverse populations in the world, made the atmosphere at this international event even more special. There was some isolated chatter that perhaps the USTA should start to charge to attend the qualifying, even if it was an affordable $20 a day. With about 20,000 people a day heading to the grounds during Fan Week, that would be an additional half a million dollars in revenue a day, times four days, for $2 million total, not to mention all the Honey Deuces and hamburgers being sold. This could perhaps alleviate some of the congestion while having the money benefit the USTA Foundation. It’s probably not worth the public relations push back and it’s not as though fans trouncing around the crowded grounds can say they didn’t get their money’s worth while attending a free event. The main draw of the event, however, is a different story.

The larger crowds at Fan Week in 2026 is also probably attributed to the fact that re-sale prices for the U.S. Open is outrageously high, as Jon Wertheim outlined in his SportsIllustrated.com article here https://www.si.com/tennis/why-us-open-ticket-prices-soaring Many fans can’t afford to go to the main show anymore, so they will get their U.S. Open fix during Fan Week. You used to see a real economic divide between crowds at U.S. Open qualifying and U.S. Open main draw, where the main draw crowd was a lot more “well-heeled.” However, now at the qualifying, you see the higher-end dressed fans, many looking like Instagram models, walking the grounds holding their gold-colored champagne glasses looking like fashion advertisements in Vogue.

Decades ago, the USTA paid little attention to U.S. Open qualifying, as I discussed here “The USTA Used To Not Really Care About U.S. Open Qualifying” https://youtu.be/HSvQ2nr6MsM?si=H6XuPhe97ELp6EGE via @YouTube The Food Court wasn’t open and there were no sponsor activations. Even after I left the USTA, I continued to push that the U.S. Open should be more “open” during the qualifying week. When the USTA had a U.S. Open Bookstore on site (it needs to come back!), I pleaded to Rick Rennert, who ran the store, to be open during the qualifying tournament so more of the books that I published could be sold to the fans attending qualifying. There used to still be on-site construction and set-up going on at times during qualifying and competing players would complain about the noise from buzz saws and hammering. Now, you don’t get complaints when there is music blaring through huge speakers on site and DJs and kids screaming with full lung capacity.

Remember when U.S. Open players would complain about airplane noise from planes taking off and landing at LaGuardia Airport? Players aren’t complaining now. They fully understand that chaos is part of the U.S. Open. The chaos that persisted over two weeks is now extended to three weeks.