US Open preview: Reigning champs Novak Djokovic, Coco Gauff headline final tennis major of 2024 - Schedule, how to watch

The Grand Slam tennis season for 2024 ends - as it always does - in New York City.

The top players in the world are set for the US Open in Queens, where Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff are the defending champions. But the two arrive in the city that doesn't sleep off the back of vastly different summers, as the American Gauff has struggled while Djokovic captured a long-sought-after Olympic gold medal at Paris 2024.

Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek are the respective top seeds of the year's final major, which gets underway on Monday (26 August) and runs for two weeks, through to 8 September.

News came out in recent days that Sinner had tested positive for the banned substance clostebol in March, but that he bore "no fault or negligence," by an independent tribunal.

The Italian, who won his first major at the Australian Open in January and captured the Cincinnati Masters earlier this week (19 August), will face American Mackenzie McDonald in the first round.

The men's draw sees the top two seeds in Sinner and Djokovic on opposite sides of it, while No.3 Carlos Alcaraz, the Olympic silver medallist who won both Roland-Garros and Wimbledon earlier this year, is on the top half with Sinner and No.4 seed Alexander Zverev, the Tokyo 2020 champion, joining Djokovic on the bottom.

Swiatek has 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina on her half of the draw, while Gauff is joined by No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka on the bottom, who was champion in Cincinnati, too.

Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen is seeded seventh, with Sabalenka her seeded quarter-final opponent - a could-be re-match of their Australian Open final from January, which Sabalenka won.

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