The Essential Shade Seekers’ Seating Guide to the US Open (2026)

We may earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you, after using a link on this article. Please read our disclosure for more info.

Attending a Grand Slam tennis tournament is a bucket-list experience for any serious sports fan. The US Open, held annually in New York City around Labor Day, offers a fantastic opportunity to see the world’s top tennis players in action. That said, the US Open is an event with a complex array of ticketing options and tickets are always in high demand. For the best experience it’s important to do your due diligence and choose your seats wisely!

The 2026 US Open is scheduled for August  24 – September 13. Qualifying rounds and the mixed doubles tournament will be held during the week starting August 24th followed by the main draw beginning on Sunday August 30th. This article is designed to help you navigate the stadiums at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and understand your ticketing options, with a specific focus on finding shaded seats. The US Open is an outdoor summer event, so whether you’re roasting in the sun or relaxing with a Honey Deuce cocktail in the shade can significantly impact your overall enjoyment!

For more general advice about attending the US Open or strategies on how to see specific players, you will need to look beyond this guide. However, there are plenty of excellent resources online. Try not to stress too much, especially if it’s your first time. The US Open is an experience beyond individual tennis matches.

US Open Tennis Stadiums

The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center has over 20 outer courts and four stadium courts. During the qualifying rounds and early stages of the tournament, many of the outer courts host matches, offering fans an incredible chance to witness top-tier tennis talent from only a few feet away. As the tournament progresses and the player pool narrows, high-interest matches move to the bigger stadium courts. This guide focuses specifically on the three biggest stadium courts. 

Below is a summary of the main US Open stadiums. We also have individual guides for each stadium, detailing which specific sections are shaded at various times throughout the day. For a more in-depth exploration, feel free to click or tap on the image below to access the full article.

Grandstand Stadium

The third-largest court at the US Open, Grandstand hosts early day session matches during the tournament.

US Open Ticketing Options

Unlike baseball or soccer where your ticket grants entry to a single game or match, the US Open is divided into sessions. Most days during the tournament and split into two sessions: a day session (starting at 11:00 AM) and a night session (starting at 7:00 PM). Within each session, multiple matches occur across several courts. This means a session ticket allows you to potentially pick and choose matches at different courts, depending on your schedule and which players you most want to see. 

To attend a session, there are four ticketing options: 1. Arthur Ashe Stadium ticket, 2. Louis Armstrong Stadium ticket, 3. Grandstand ticket and 4. Grounds pass

To attend a session, there are four ticketing options:

1. Arthur Ashe Stadium ticket
2. Louis Armstrong Stadium ticket
3. Grandstand ticket
4. Grounds pass

All four types of tickets grant you entry on to the US Open grounds. Once on-site, the type of ticket you have determines which stadiums you can access and where you can sit inside those stadiums. 

The table below details the access allowed by each type of ticket. Keep in mind that not every ticket is offered for every session. For example the Grounds pass and Grandstand tickets are typically only offered for day sessions early in the tournament. It’s important to check what’s happening on the day you plan to attend. 

The most valuable ticket, in theory, is for Arthur Ashe Stadium, as it’s the only ticket that allows access to the main stadium, where the US Open typically schedules the biggest stars. And it gives you general admission access to the other two main stadiums.

Some US Open tips guides recommend that fans on a budget purchase the cheapest upper-level Ashe ticket. The logic is that this type of ticket functions as a de facto Grounds Pass even if you never step foot inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, but it still gives you the option too see matches there if you wish. On the other hand, many tennis fans find Ashe to be cavernous and the upper-level too far from the court to really enjoy the matches. Buying a nosebleed seat at Ashe means you only have access to general admission at Armstrong and Grandstand so it may not be the best option for everybody. 

Fans looking for a more affordable ticket than courtside seats at Arthur Ashe may therefore prefer a reserved seat at Louis Armstrong Stadium. Lower-level sections at Armstrong are ticketed, while the upper-level sections are mostly general admission. Purchasing an Armstrong ticket guarantees a higher quality seat but the downside is there is no access to Arthur Ashe Stadium.

A Grounds Pass grants access only to outer courts and general admission areas, allowing you to watch matches at Louis Armstrong Stadium and the Grandstand in the general admission sections, but not at Arthur Ashe Stadium, since it does not have a general admission section. 

The images below show how Louis Armstrong Stadium and the Grandstand are divided into reserved seating and general admission. Starting in 2024 the US Open switched several upper-level sections that were previously general admission to reserved so it’s important to double check the seating charts on Ticketmaster to confirm where you need a reserved ticket to sit! 

Where to Buy US Open Tickets

Ticketmaster is the official Box Office and Verified Resale partner for the US Open. It’s best to begin your ticket search on Ticketmaster to see what options they have available for the session you’re interested in.

Box Office tickets are those still available from the US Open at face value. On Ticketmaster, they are marked as “Verified Ticket” and appear as blue dots on the seat map. Resale tickets are labeled “Verified Resale” and show up as purple dots with two circling arrows on the seat map. Resale tickets may be priced above or below face value. On lower-demand weekdays Verified Resale may actually be a decent value. However on high-demand weekends Verified Resale may be all that’s available at high prices. Always check and don’t assume. The US Open displays “All In” prices on Ticketmaster, which means the price you see is what you’ll pay, with no surprise fees added at checkout. 

The image below demonstrates what the mix of blue dots and purple dots look like on the Ticketmaster seat map on a laptop or desktop computer.

From a buyer’s perspective, whether you purchase a Verified Ticket or Verified Resale on Ticketmaster, your experience is identical. After completing the checkout, your ticket is instantly available in your Ticketmaster account. When you arrive at the US Open, you’ll scan your ticket using the Ticketmaster mobile app.

After checking Ticketmaster, it’s also worthwhile to explore options on SeatGeek and StubHub, both reputable resale websites. Many tennis fans buy multi-session packages months in advance and decide which sessions to attend once the schedule of play is announced. Since the schedule of play is released only about 24 hours in advance you may find a surge of last-minute tickets available for resale depending on how the schedule shakes out. 

If you purchase on SeatGeek or StubHub, you will still need a Ticketmaster account and the Ticketmaster mobile app. Post-purchase, you’ll receive an invitation from the seller to “accept” the ticket into your Ticketmaster account. SeatGeek and StubHub are both established and reputable ticket marketplaces, offering robust buyer guarantees (which you can read here and here) in case of any issues.

Do not buy tickets from a stranger on Facebook or Craigslist, or a random passenger on the 7 train. These direct person-to-person sales are temping as a way to avoid the ticket marketplace fees, which are admittedly substantial. Unfortunately scammers know this and exploit sports fans’ distaste for fees. Unless you personally know the seller, the lack of protections means that if something goes wrong, you could lose all of your money and miss out on attending the US Open. 

New York City Weather During the US Open

The US Open is held during late summer. New York City is not the hottest city in the world, but temperatures in August and September are toasty. In 2026, the full tournament is scheduled for August 24 – September 13. The chart below displays the average daily temperatures in New York City with dashed lines denoting important tournament dates. Average daily highs top 80 degrees Fahrenheit for most dates during the 2026 tournament. 

It’s important to note that official temperatures are always measured using a thermometer in the shade. Why? Because in the shade, only air temperature is measured. If the thermometer is placed in direct sunlight, solar radiation would make it feel 10-15 degrees Fahrenheit warmer. This article by a meteorologist delves into the science behind this, but the key takeaway is that on an 80-degree day at the US Open, a seat in the sun could easily feel like it’s in the 90s. Yikes!

Orientation of the Sun During the US Open

An important quirk of the US Open is that matches begin in the morning, hours before the sun reaches its meridian (i.e., “solar noon”). The graphic below illustrates the solar arc in New York City on September 1st and includes session start times for reference.

Consider the sun’s daily journey in two phases: rising and setting. “Solar noon” marks the midpoint, when the sun is at its highest point in the sky and switches from rising to setting. Most professional sports are scheduled in the afternoon or evening and occur entirely during the sun’s “setting” phase. For instance, at Citi Field next door, the Mets 2026 schedule has first pitch after 1:05 PM for almost all games, meaning the sun is always descending at the time the game begins.

Since the first matches of the US Open are scheduled for 11:00 AM, the dynamics of shaded seating are essentially reversed during the first daily match. At Louis Armstrong Stadium, for example, seats on the west side start the first match in the sun but transition into the shade after a few sets and remain shaded for the rest of the day. If you arrive in the morning and find your seat, chosen using our guide, in the sun, don’t worry! It will soon enough move into the shade. 

Do US Open Stadiums Have Retractable Roofs?

Both Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium have retractable roofs. However, the Grandstand and outer courts do not have roofs.

When the National Tennis Center opened in the 1970s, all venues, including Arthur Ashe Stadium, were open-air with no cover. A major issue in New York City is that weather is unpredictable. Rain often caused schedule delays, pushing championship matches that should have taken place over the closing weekend into the following week. In response, a retractable roof was added to Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2016, and a new Louis Armstrong Stadium with a retractable roof was built a few years later. 

The US Open is traditionally an outdoor event, so you should expect the roof to be open as long as the weather is clear. It’s best practice to always prepare for a hot, sunny day and assume the roof will be open. 

Want Even More Information About Shade at the US Open?

Check out our in-depth articles about Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, Grandstand, and Stadium 17 for details about which seats are shaded at different times of day.