Updated Wednesday, September 9th. The last Grand Slam of the year has lost both of its headliners. Jannik Sinner never started, out since August 21st with a knee injury, and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz fell to Ben Shelton in a five-set quarterfinal that ended at 3:30 AM, the latest finish in tournament history. Novak Djokovic had already gone out in the first round. Alexander Zverev is the top seed and the only member of the top 4 still in the draw. Five days are left, from the closing quarterfinals to the men’s final on September 13th. A free US Open live stream is on 3 channels, all geo-blocked, and reaching them works the same way it does for Wimbledon and the French Open.
How to Watch the US Open on a Free Channel from Anywhere: Summary
- Subscribe to a risk-free VPN. We recommend NordVPN for the best results.
- Set up and install the VPN.
- Launch the VPN and sign in with your email and password.
- Connect to an Australian (9Now), Austrian (Joyn) or Italian (SuperTennis) VPN server.
- Visit the chosen free channel, create a free account, and watch the closing rounds.
Where Can I Watch the US Open Online for Free?
9Now is the answer for English commentary. Nine holds the Australian rights to all 4 Grand Slams and puts selected marquee matches on Channel 9, 9Gem and 9Go, with the same feed streamed free on 9Now. A free account is all it asks for, with no card details. One caveat we ran into in week one: Nine picks the matches, so the outer courts are missing and the full 16-court draw is not there. That matters far less now that only 4 matches remain.
Bonus options: Joyn and PULS 4 show 26 matches free in Austria, both finals included, with German commentary. SuperTennis carries the whole tournament free in Italy on channel 64 of the digital terrestrial, in Italian.
All 3 free channels check your location. 9Now serves Australia, Joyn serves Austria, SuperTennis serves Italy, and everyone else gets an error screen instead of a stream. Every other broadcaster charges. We list what they cost further down, though the free channels plus a refundable VPN come to nothing.
Important: TVNZ no longer holds US Open rights. New Zealand gets the tournament inside the ESPN section of Disney+, from NZ$9.99 a month, so a New Zealand server costs money.
What Is Still Free Between Now and the Final
The daily two-match window on Joyn ran to the quarterfinals, so the Austrian channel now switches to the big matches only.
- Thursday, September 10th – women’s semifinals, on 9Now in Australia and SuperTennis in Italy
- Friday, September 11th – men’s semifinals, with one of the two live on Joyn and PULS 4 from 8:40 PM CEST
- Saturday, September 12th – women’s final, live on Joyn and PULS 4 from 9:55 PM CEST
- Sunday, September 13th – men’s final, live on Joyn and PULS 4 from 7:25 PM CEST
Americans get one free window of their own, since ABC carries the men’s final over the air on September 13th, with the preview show from 1 PM ET and the match at 2 PM ET. The women’s final on September 12th is on ESPN, not ABC.
Watch the US Open on a Free TV Channel: Step-by-Step Tutorial
No flight to Sydney. You need an Australian IP address, and a VPN supplies one by masking your real IP and sending your traffic through a server in Australia. 9Now reads the new address and treats you as a local viewer. Encryption does the rest, keeping the connection unreadable so the channel has nothing to flag. NordVPN is the most reliable for it, thanks to hundreds of Australian servers and a protocol built for HD streams.
1. Subscribe to a VPN
NordVPN’s 2-year Basic plan costs $3.49 a month, a 69% saving, with 3 extra months on top. Every plan comes with an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee, and 5 days of tennis are left, so the finals fit inside the refund window with more than 3 weeks to spare.
Watch the US Open With NordVPN
2. Install a VPN on Your Device
Installing it works like any other app. Download the setup file on Windows or Mac, or search for NordVPN on Google Play and the App Store. Fire TV Stick and Android TV owners can get it from the Amazon Appstore and Google Play.
3. Connect to a VPN Server in Australia
Open the app, sign in, and the dashboard appears. Open the server list and pick Australia, or Austria for Joyn, or Italy for SuperTennis. One click connects in about 2 to 3 seconds, and the app shows that.
4. Create a Free Account on 9Now
Go to 9now.com.au, register with an email and password, and verify the email. The form also asks for a birth year and an Australian postcode, and 2000 covers Sydney.
5. Watch the US Open Tennis on a Free Channel
Click Live TV, select Channel 9 or 9Gem, and the day’s featured matches are there through the final. Afterwards, ask for the refund through live chat, and NordVPN processes it without questions. Or keep the subscription, which is what most people do. Our NordVPN review explains why.
Best VPNs to Watch the US Open Tennis Live Online
Outside Australia, Austria and Italy, these 3 providers opened all the free channels in our testing.
1. NordVPN: Best Overall
Pros
- 9,500+ servers in 149 countries
- Hundreds of Australian servers
- Fast NordLynx protocol
- Blocks ads, malware, and trackers
- 10 devices at once
Cons
- Higher renewal prices
- Occasional connection problems
NordVPN was the fastest provider we tested, and NordLynx held a stable HD picture on 9Now through the Shelton five-setter that ran past 3 AM in New York. Australian, Austrian and Italian servers are plentiful, so a busy one is never a problem. Deloitte has audited its no-logs policy 6 times, most recently in February 2026, and the servers run on RAM with an optional post-quantum encryption toggle.
Threat Protection Pro strips ads and malicious scripts, and Meshnet handles private LAN parties for gamers. Claim the discount through our site and the 30-day guarantee applies from day one.
2. Proton VPN: Privacy-First VPN for Streaming
Pros
- 20,000+ servers in 148 countries
- Swiss jurisdiction, open-source apps
- Secure Core multi-hop
- $2.99 a month for 2 years
- Usable free plan
Cons
- No RAM-only servers
- Slower than NordVPN in testing
Proton VPN operates 20,000+ servers in 148 countries, Australia, Austria and Italy included, and it’s the strictest option here on privacy. Switzerland falls outside both Eyes alliances, every app is open source and audited, and Secure Core sends traffic through a server in a second country before it exits.
It opened 9Now without trouble, though speeds trailed NordVPN across our test runs. The 2-year plan comes to $2.99 a month with the same 30-day money-back guarantee, a 70% cut on the usual rate. A couple of things to know: the servers use full-disk encryption instead of RAM, and there’s no post-quantum option.
3. ExpressVPN: Best for Fast, HD US Open Live Streams
Pros
- 214 locations in 113 countries
- 10 Gbps servers
- Works on Fire TV Stick
- British Virgin Islands jurisdiction
- Lightway and WireGuard protocols
Cons
- Costs more than the rest
- Fewer advanced security features
Those 10 Gbps servers matter on a hop as long as Europe to Sydney, and 4K held without stutter in our tests. The apps cover Smart TVs, Apple TV, Fire TV Stick, Roku, and Kodi, which is why so many people also use it to watch Formula 1 on a free channel. ExpressVPN stores no browsing history, DNS queries, or connection timestamps, and post-quantum encryption is standard. Basic allows 10 simultaneous connections, rising to 14 on the top tier. The 2-year plan takes 80% off at $2.99 a month and adds 4 free months.
4. CyberGhost: Best Cheap VPN for US Open Live Stream
Pros
- $2.19 a month for 2 years, plus 2 free months
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- 12,000+ servers in 100 countries
- Dedicated streaming servers
- Built-in ad blocker
Cons
- No obfuscation
- Limited to 7 devices
- Renewal doubles the monthly rate
The cheapest option here, and its 45-day guarantee covers the rest of the tournament 9 times over. The streaming servers are pre-tuned per platform, so you pick the channel instead of guessing at a city, and it also opens Australian Netflix from abroad. WireGuard keeps speeds respectable. The Deloitte audit backs the no-logs claim, and the same subscription helps with cheaper flights long after the tennis ends. The limit is 7 devices against NordVPN’s 10, so a large household may feel the pinch, and the renewal bills the same amount for half the period. Learn more about it in our CyberGhost review.
US Open Tennis Live Stream on Paid Channels
Paid broadcasters are geo-locked exactly like 9Now, so watching one from abroad means paying for the channel and a VPN. Here’s what they charge at home.
- ESPN Unlimited (US): $29.99 a month until September 16th, then $31.99. The only standalone plan with all 16 courts, and the finals land before the increase
- ESPN Select (US): $12.99 a month, $13.99 from September 17th. This is the old ESPN+ and excludes the ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC feeds
- Fubo Sports (US): $55.99 a month with ESPN Unlimited included, the cheapest bundle covering every court
- Sling TV (US): $19.99 for Essentials with ESPN and ESPN2, $45.99 for Orange
- YouTube TV (US): $82.99 a month
- Hulu + Live TV (US): $89.99 a month
- NOW (UK and Ireland): £34.99 a month or £14.99 for a 24-hour pass, showing Sky Sports
- TSN (Canada): CAD $29.99 a month or CAD $249.99 a year, with RDS showing the French feed
- SPORTEUROPE.TV (Germany, Austria, Switzerland): €24.90 all-access or €9.90 per day, no subscription
- Stan Sport (Australia): an AU$20 add-on to a Stan plan, for every court, ad-free play and 4K
- Disney+ (New Zealand): the exclusive home there, from NZ$9.99 a month with ESPN included
A couple of common searches lead nowhere. Prime Video showed the US Open in the UK until 2023, when Sky bought exclusive rights and kept them. Peacock has no tennis, since its US Open is the golf major on NBC. Americans do get free windows on ABC, which took all 3 Sundays this year: the first round on August 30th, the round of 16 on September 6th, and the men’s final on September 13th.
Will Free VPNs Work?
No. Austrian and Italian servers barely exist on free plans, and the few free providers with Australian servers cap the data. TunnelBear allows 2 GB a month, which won’t cover one five-set match in HD, and this tournament has produced several. Proton VPN gives unlimited data but assigns the server itself, so Australia isn’t selectable.
Free networks are also small and permanently congested, and some keep records they don’t advertise. Hotspot Shield’s VPN notice admits to storing the domain names its users visit in anonymized form. With a 30-day refund on every provider, there’s no reason to accept any of that.
The US Open Tennis 2026 Schedule
Fan Week opened on August 23rd, qualifying ran from August 24th to 27th, and the main draw started on August 30th. At 22 days, this is the longest US Open ever staged. The Mixed Doubles Championship went to Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik, who beat Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 on August 26th, after knocking out the wild card pairing of Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz.
Week one wrecked the men’s seedings. Novak Djokovic lost his opener to Mariano Navone, his first first-round exit at a major since 2006, and 20 of the 32 men’s seeds were gone before the round of 16 started. Three American men reached the last eight, and Shelton against Tiafoe guarantees one in the final four.
- August 23rd to 29th – Fan Week
- August 24th to 27th – Qualifiers
- August 24th to 26th – Mixed Doubles Championship (Muchova / Mensik)
- August 30th to September 1st – Men/Women singles 1st round
- September 2nd to 3rd – Men/Women singles 2nd round
- September 4th to 5th – Men/Women singles 3rd round
- September 6th to 7th – Men/Women round of 16
- September 8th to 9th – Men/Women quarterfinals
- September 10th – Women’s semifinals
- September 11th – Men’s semifinals
- September 12th – Women’s final (4 PM ET / 1 PM PT)
- September 13th – Men’s final (2 PM ET / 11 AM PT)
Day sessions begin at 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT and 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT on Arthur Ashe Stadium, and night sessions begin at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT. The official site publishes the daily order of play.
Summary
The free US Open live stream is on 9Now in English, on Joyn and PULS 4 in German, and on SuperTennis in Italian. All 3 require an IP address from the right country, which is what NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, and CyberGhost provide. Claim the refund afterwards, and the closing rounds cost nothing. With Sinner absent, Djokovic out in the first round and Alcaraz beaten in the quarterfinals, whoever lifts the trophy on Sunday will have taken the most open draw in years.
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Frequently Asked Questions
🌐 Do I need a VPN to watch the US Open online?
Not in Australia or Austria, where 9Now and Joyn load natively. Anywhere else, a VPN supplies the Australian or Austrian IP address that makes the free stream play.
🦘 How can I watch US Open in Australia?
Nine shows the whole tournament free on Channel 9 and the 9Now app, with English commentary and no payment details. Stan Sport is the paid alternative, adding ad-free play and 4K on the show courts.
🆓 Is the US Open still free on TVNZ?
No. TVNZ lost the rights, and Disney+ is now the exclusive New Zealand home, on a paid subscription. Australia and Austria are the countries to pick for a free stream.
⚖️ Are VPNs for US Open live streaming legal?
Yes. VPNs are legal across Europe, Africa, New Zealand, and most of Asia, with the exceptions in a handful of heavily censored countries such as North Korea. The full legal picture is here.
❌ What if my VPN isn't working?
Switching to another Australian server clears most cases, and changing the protocol or enabling obfuscation handles the rest. Clearing browser cookies or trying a different browser is worth ruling out.
