As the US Open starts today Rafael Nadal (current world No. 1) begins the tournament as the top-seeded player for the third time in his career and the first since 2010.
The Spaniard, winner of 15 Grand Slam tournaments, will play his first match against Serbian Dusan Lajovic, 85th in the ranking and who has a 0-1 record against Nadal. “Rafa,” a winner of two US Open trophies, already defeated the Serbian in the 2014 Roland Garros’ round of 16.
Other top players that are on Nadal’s side of the brackets are Bulgarian Gregor Dimitrov, who recently won the 1000 Masters of Cincinnati and Swiss Roger Federer. Dimitrov could face Nadal in the quarterfinals while the winner of that match would advance to face Federer in the semifinals.
Federer, a winner of 19 Grand Slam tournaments, opens his quest to win a sixth US Open with a match against American Frances Tiafoe.
With a possible Nadal and Federer match looming it’s clear that whoever wins that battle will end the tournament as world’s number one once the US Open end, as long as Scotland’s Andy Murray does not win the title.
Alexander Zverev, winner of five ATP titles this season, will be one of the big pitfalls on Murray’s path in the lower part of the brackets. The German will face Barbados Darian King in his opening match.
The 2017 US Open will be missing several key players, among them defending champion Stan Wawrinka (out with a knee injury); Serbian Novak Djokovic (elbow problems); Canadian Milos Raonic (injured left wrist) and Japan’s Kei Nishikori (right wrist injury)
Belgian Angelique Kerber, women’s defending champion, has had a very irregular season and will start the 137th US Open facing Japan’s Naomi Osaka, ranked 45th in the world.
In the women’s side, other interesting opening round matches are Romanian Simona Halep facing Russia’s Maria Sharapova, Czech Karolina Pliskova doing battle with Poland’s Magda Linette and Venus Williams playing against Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova.
This edition of the US Open marks the 20th year since the construction of Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest tennis facility on the planet tennis with a capacity of 24,000 people and that debuted a retractable roof in 2016.
With over $50 million in prize money, the US Open’s purse is the largest of the four Grand Slam tournaments with the winner taking home $3.7 million.
