NEW YORK: Novak Djokovic will launch his bid to finish the calendar-year Grand Slam on the US Open in opposition to a qualifier, however his path will get a lot more durable with potential clashes in opposition to Matteo Berrettini and Alexander Zverev.
French Open runner-up and third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas will tackle former champion Andy Murray within the choose of the primary spherical matches. Murray is now ranked 114th on the planet as he has struggled to regain full health after present process hip re-surfacing surgical procedure in 2019.
Within the girls’s draw held on Thursday in New York, high seed Ash Barty opens her marketing campaign in opposition to Russian Vera Zvonareva whereas defending US Open champion Naomi Osaka’s first Grand Slam motion since she withdrew from the French Open following a first-round victory to take a psychological well being break will come in opposition to Marie Bouzkova.
Wanting previous that, Osaka may face 17-year-old American Coco Gauff or three-time main champion Angelique Kerber within the fourth spherical.
Males’s second seed Daniil Medvedev will launch his bid to win his first main title in opposition to veteran Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Zverev, who may very well be Djokovic’s semi-final opponent, has been the shape participant coming into Flushing Meadows, having upset the Serb on method to the singles gold medal on the Tokyo Olympics after which rolling to victory on the ATP Masters 1000 occasion in Cincinnati.
Final yr Zverev was denied a maiden main on the US Open after being crushed within the remaining by Dominic Thiem, who’s unable to defend his title attributable to a wrist harm.
Primary draw motion on the US Open begins on Monday, with the match being held with followers this yr after going down in a safe bubble final yr as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
This yr’s match has already witnessed a number of high-profile withdrawals, with Thiem being joined on the sidelines by Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.
Revealed in Daybreak, August 27th, 2021
