There is a specific problem with watching tennis in a Los Angeles sports bar in September, and it has nothing to do with tennis. It is that the American football season has just started, and in a room with fourteen screens, thirteen of them are spoken for. The US Open finishes on 13 September 2026, which puts its closing week directly on top of the busiest weekend television in the country. Knowing how to work around that is the whole exercise.
The screen you want is claimed by football unless somebody agreed otherwise in advance. Ask Karpo which rooms near you will actually put the tennis on with sound this week.
Understand what you are asking for
Most of the 2026 tournament runs on ESPN and its channels, with streaming on the ESPN app. The men's championship on Sunday 13 September is on ABC, which is free-to-air. Those are two very different requests to make of a venue.
Asking a bar to put on an ESPN feed during football season means asking them to give up a screen and a channel that other customers are actively watching. Asking them to put on ABC for the men's final is a much smaller ask, and any venue with basic television service can do it. Lead with the network name, not the sport.
The rooms most likely to say yes
The football pub is the first call — meaning European football. Rooms built around Premier League fixtures open at six or seven in the morning, have multiple satellite feeds, and have staff entirely used to being asked for a specific channel at an unusual hour. They are also, crucially, not full of American football on a Sunday in the way a general sports bar is. Santa Monica, Culver City, the Fairfax corridor, Hollywood and parts of the Valley all have several.
The second category is the hotel bar, which will have the television on, will be open at eleven in the morning, and has no competing constituency demanding a different game. The third is the neighbourhood restaurant with a bar section, which is the best option for a group because you can sit at a table and eat rather than standing at a rail for three hours.
The category to avoid is exactly the one the search suggests: the large multi-screen sports barn on a September Sunday. Tennis there will get a small screen near the toilets with the sound off, if it gets one at all.
The phone call that decides it
Call, do not message, and ask in this order. What time do you open on the day. Do you get ABC, and do you have ESPN. Will you put the tennis on the main screen with the sound up, or on a specific screen we can sit in front of. And can we reserve a table or a section for that time. Get a name.
The sound question is the one people forget and the one that ruins the experience. A muted tennis match in a room playing football commentary is unwatchable — the rhythm of the sport is in the sound, and you lose the crowd, the strikes and the calls. If a venue will not give you sound, ask for the screen closest to a corner and bring the audio on a phone with an earbud, which is inelegant but works.
The timing, because it is a morning event here
New York is three hours ahead. The women's singles final on Saturday 12 September starts at four in the afternoon Eastern, which is one o'clock Pacific — comfortably within normal bar hours. The men's final on Sunday 13 September traditionally goes on in the early afternoon Eastern, which lands late morning here, and that is the hard part: a large share of Los Angeles bars do not open until noon. Anywhere doing brunch service from eleven is a better bet than a dedicated sports bar that opens at two, and arriving thirty minutes before the first serve is the difference between a table and a wall to lean on.
The streaming fallback
It is worth having the non-bar option ready, because in September the odds of a Los Angeles sports bar giving tennis a main screen are genuinely poor. ESPN's app carries the full tournament for anyone with a login, and the men's final on ABC is free-to-air, which means a laptop and a television with a basic connection covers everything. The version of this that works socially is to host rather than to search: a mid-morning start, food bought on the way, and people invited for the match rather than for a party. It costs less than a round of drinks, the sound is on, and nobody has to negotiate with a manager about which game owns the big screen.
Practical notes
2026 US Open: 24 August to 13 September. Women's singles final Saturday 12 September, 4pm Eastern which is 1pm Pacific. Men's singles final Sunday 13 September on ABC; ESPN and the ESPN app carry the rest of the tournament. Because the men's final is free-to-air, any venue with basic television service can show it — lead with the network name when you call. Best venues: pubs that open early for European football in Santa Monica, Culver City, the Fairfax corridor, Hollywood and the Valley; hotel bars; and neighbourhood restaurants with a bar section for groups. Avoid large multi-screen sports bars on a September Sunday, when American football owns every main screen. On the phone ask: opening time, whether they get ABC and ESPN, whether the tennis will be on a main screen with sound, and whether you can reserve. Arrive 30 minutes early.
Tags: #USOpenTickets #USOpen2026 #LosAngeles #WatchParty #SportsBars #TennisLA #ABCBroadcast #ESPN #SantaMonica #CulverCity #Hollywood #WeekendPlans #GrandSlam #FootballSeason
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Ask Karpo first
In September the screens in Los Angeles belong to football unless somebody has agreed otherwise. Ask Karpo which rooms near you are open at the right hour, which will put the tennis on with sound, and where to move if the place you called has changed its mind by Sunday.
