US Open Announces Historic Schedule Change for 2025 Tournament with 15-Day Main Draw

Major schedule changes are coming to the U.S. Open this year.

According to The Athletic's James Hansen, the tournament will start on Sunday this year rather than Monday. Thus, Wimbledon will now be the only Grand Slam tournament with a Monday start.

Furthermore, the tournament will transition to a 15-day main draw, with matches in the singles main draw starting on Sunday, Aug. 24 and concluding on Sept. 7. The first round will last three days, from Sunday to Tuesday. It will be the first time the tournament has started on a weekend in the Open Era, per Hansen.

According to Hansen, adding an extra day to the tournament is estimated to give 70,000 more fans a chance to attend.

The change comes after last year's U.S. Open featured the latest start time to a match in tournament history when Aryna Sabalenka and Ekaterina Alexandrova's third-round match began shortly after midnight. Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekic's fourth-round meeting ended at 2:15 a.m., which was the latest finish to a women's match in U.S. Open history.

According to Hansen, the tournament began using a Late Finishing Match Policy "designed to mitigate the impact of late-night tennis on players," but the tournament did not use the policy for either of the matches.

The shift to a 15-day format also follows the Australian Open, which introduced a 15-day main draw last year to prevent late-night matches.