{"id":97563,"date":"2026-02-08T15:15:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=97563"},"modified":"2026-02-08T15:15:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T20:15:58","slug":"american-stars-2026-dallas-open-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/02\/08\/american-stars-2026-dallas-open-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"American Stars Head to Texas: 2026 Dallas Open Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

14 of the top 15-ranked American male tennis players are scheduled to play in the Dallas Open, a 32-player ATP Tour 500-level event being held this week in Frisco, Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n

World No. 7 Taylor Fritz<\/a> and No. 9 Ben Shelton<\/a> headline a field that is dominated by American men. A full 17 of the 32 available main draw slots are filled by Americans, with the possibility of two more to be filled by American qualifiers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The highest-paying of the two ATP Tour 500-level events scheduled for the United States in 2026, the Dallas Open is the fifth-largest men\u2019s event in the country. Only the US Open and the three Masters 1000 ATP Tour events in Indian Wells, Miami, and Cincinnati hold more significance than this week\u2019s event.<\/span><\/p>\n

2026 Dallas Open Preview<\/h2>\n

The American Seeds<\/h3>\n

Fritz and Shelton claimed the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, respectively. While favorites on paper, these top American men are only two of the five American men seeded. Fritz\u2019s path to the finals could include No. 8 Frances Tiafoe in the quarterfinals and surging No. 6 seed Learner Tien in the semi-finals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other side of the draw, Shelton may run into the third-highest American in the world, No. 5 seed Tommy Paul.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Young Veterans Lurking<\/h3>\n

In addition to the seeds, American direct-acceptance entries are sprinkled throughout the draw. Brandon Nakashima, Alex Michelsen, and Jenson Brooksby \u2013 all ranked inside the World’s Top 50 \u2013 defeated Fritz in the past. While none hold a win over Shelton, facing a top-ranked star will not intimidate these young veterans.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wild Cards<\/h3>\n

World No. 71 Eliot Spizzirri<\/a> leads a collection of three men awarded a wild-card entry into the Dallas Open. Along with Spizzirri, wild-card Michael Zheng won a main draw match at last month\u2019s Australian Open. Tournament officials awarded the final wild-card entry to local college standout Trevor Zvajda, whose older brother Zach is looking to join him via qualifying.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a twist of the draw, Zheng faces America\u2019s ninth-highest-ranked player, Sebastian Korda, in his opening match. Zheng pushed Korda out of the Australian Open last month before returning home to play college matches for Columbia University before the Dallas Open.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Big Opportunities\u2026 Big Money<\/h3>\n

In 2024, the Dallas Open was an ATP 250-level event held on a college campus. Since becoming an ATP 500 event and moving to The Star in Frisco, the event has more <\/span>than doubled its prize money.<\/span><\/a> The 2026 prize money pool includes a payout of $529,945 to the winner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the headlines, even winners of only two matches claim $77,625. This week offers a significant opportunity for American stars and up-and-comers alike. The American stars are heading to The Star in Frisco; it should be a great week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Aaron Doster – Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 of the top 15-ranked American male tennis players are scheduled to play in the Dallas Open, a 32-player ATP Tour 500-level event being held this week in Frisco, Texas. World No. 7 Taylor Fritz and No. 9 Ben Shelton headline a field that is dominated by American men. A full 17 of the 32 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2763,"featured_media":89186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[18656,807,17259,16662,10956,18609,18998,348,8212,18113,18904,8147,347,1635,43549,1733],"class_list":["post-97563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alex-michelsen","tag-american-tennis","tag-atp-dallas-open","tag-ben-shelton","tag-brandon-nakashima","tag-dallas-open","tag-eliot-spizzirri","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-jenson-brooksby","tag-learner-tien","tag-michael-zheng","tag-sebastian-korda","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-tommy-paul","tag-trevor-zvajda","tag-usta"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97563"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97585,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97563\/revisions\/97585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}