The story of Alexander Blockx's rapid improvement, and the increasingly wide-open men’s draw at the US Open, are coalescing on the same stage this week in New York.
The 21-year-old Belgian overwhelmed No.5 seed Flavio Cobolli on Saturday to reach the second week of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
With six of the top-10 seeds eliminated before the fourth round and the sense of opportunity growing for those remaining, Blockx could be timing his run perfectly at Flushing Meadows.
EXPERT PICKS: Who will win the US Open in 2026?
“My goal for this tournament was to get to the second week of the Open,” Blockx said after his 6-7(4) 6-3 6-0 6-3 defeat of the Roland Garros finalist.
“I've reached that now, so yeah, I think I'm playing good tennis. Each match is getting better. Yeah, it means a lot.”
An Australian Open junior champion in 2023, Blockx has always been a highly-rated prospect and has lived up to that billing in 2026.
Beginning the season outside the top 100, victory at the Canberra Challenger in January set him on an upward trajectory. That accelerated with his run to the Madrid Masters semifinals, where he beat four consecutive seeded opponents in a breakout performance.
A final in July on clay in Estoril pushed him to a career-high ranking of No.32 and he arrived in New York seeded at a Grand Slam for the first time.
And with that goal firmly in sight he has powered into the last 16, sending down 17 aces among 41 winners against Cobolli, who won just four points in that third-set shut-out. It marked his second top-10 win of the season and 36th overall.
“I've had some tough losses lately, but yeah, I've learned from them,” said Blockx, projected to make his top-30 debut. “Today I think I managed to handle those moments better than I did a couple of weeks ago.
“Even, for example, against Flavio in Cincinnati, I think we also played a great match. I still don't know what happened back then at the end of the match. I think I just froze a bit.
“I think that's just something I took with me and handled a lot better today.”
Another clue to Blockx’ potential was his run to the title match at the Next Gen ATP Finals last December. He was competing against a strong cohort of players including Leaner Tien and Rafael Jodar – both now top-20 players – while Jakub Mensik, another top-20 player, also qualified, but withdrew.
Mensik and Tien are facing each other for a chance to join Blockx in the second week of the US Open.
MEET THE NEXT WAVE: 10 of the best players under 22
“I think it's always nice to see the guys who grew up with you doing well in the big stages,” said Blockx, who beat Tien for the AO 2023 boys' title. “I'm happy to have a small part of that, as well.
“I hope we'll have many more years that we can share those moments together.”
Such a moment could come as soon as this fortnight where, instead of a projected clash between top-10 stars Cobolli and Taylor Fritz, it will be Blockx facing Francisco Cerundolo for a place in the quarterfinals.
Cerundolo was one of the seeds Blockx slayed en route to the Madrid semifinals.
Having halved his ranking since then, and increasingly confident on the hardcourts of Flushing Meadows, Blockx will aim to continue his upward trajectory when he competes again on Monday.
“I actually noticed during my match, like, on the scoreboard that Francisco beat Taylor. I was a bit shocked, because Taylor was leading two sets to love up a break, as well. You wouldn't expect him to lose in that scenario,” Blockx said.
“Still, Francisco is also an amazing player. We've played once before. That was on clay. Now, conditions are completely different.
“We are both really confident, I think, playing good tennis, so it will be an exciting match.”