NEW YORK
Defending champion Andy Murray could face top-seeded Novak Djokovic only in the semifinals at the U.S. Open, while Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer – who never have played each other at Flushing Meadows – might meet in the quarterfinals.
Murray earned his first Grand Slam championship by beating Djokovic in the 2012 U.S. Open final, then added a second by beating the top-ranked Serb in the Wimbledon title match last month. But there can’t be a rematch in New York in the final, thanks to Thursday’s draw.
“Coming to the U.S. Open last year, I’d never won a Grand Slam. I didn’t know if I was ever going to win one,” Murray said at the draw ceremony. “A lot of people would say ... like, ‘He’s good enough to win a Grand Slam. He’s going to win one.’ But the more finals you lose in, the more you start to doubt yourself and think, ‘Is it ever going to happen?’ Getting that weight off my shoulders last year was huge.”
Play at the year’s final Grand Slam tournament will begin Monday.
In addition to No. 2 Nadal against No. 7 Federer, a 17-time major champion who has his lowest seeding at the U.S. Open since he was 13th in 2002, the other possible men’s quarterfinals are 2011 champion Djokovic vs. 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro, No. 3 Murray vs. No. 5 Tomas Berdych and No. 4 David Ferrer vs. No. 8 Richard Gasquet.
Federer, who owns five U.S. Open titles, and Nadal also were set up for a possible quarterfinal at Wimbledon this year, but that never materialized: Nadal lost in the first round and Federer in the second.
The potential women’s quarterfinals at the U.S. Open are No. 1 Serena Williams against No. 8 Angelique Kerber, No. 2 Victoria Azarenka against No. 7 Petra Kvitova, No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska against No. 5 Li Na and No. 4 Sara Errani against No. 6 Caroline Wozniacki.
The woman who originally was seeded third in the tournament, 2006 champion Maria Sharapova, withdrew Wednesday because of a right shoulder injury.
Williams’ 16 Grand Slam titles include four at the U.S. Open, including last year. Her first-round opponent will be 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone. Williams could play 15th-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States in the fourth round; Stephens won their Australian Open quarterfinal in January.
“I take every match really seriously. I don’t look too far in the draw; I just look at the first one,” Williams said. “For me, my competition comes with each match. Every match is going to be a very, very tough competition for me, and I just stay focused on one at a time.”
Williams has won 77 of her last 81 matches, and she was asked Thursday whether she is playing better than she ever has.
“I hope not,” Williams said. “I always like to hope I can do better, so we’ll see.”
Her older sister, 2000-01 U.S. Open champion Venus, is unseeded and was drawn to play No. 12 Kirsten Flipkens, a Wimbledon semifinalist last month, in the first round next week.
Djokovic and 2010 U.S. Open champion Nadal, who recently overtook Murray at No. 2 in the rankings, could meet only in the final. They’ve already met in five Grand Slam championship matches, including in New York in 2010 and 2011.
One intriguing earlier matchup for 12-time major title winner Nadal could come in the fourth round, when he might have to play 6-10 John Isner, a big-serving American who is seeded 13th and pushed the Spaniard to five sets at the French Open two years ago.
Nadal was drawn to play another American, 21-year-old Ryan Harrison, in the first round.
Djokovic, who has reached at least the semifinals at the U.S. Open each of the last six years, could face 25th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov in the third round. Dimitrov surprisingly beat Djokovic on clay at the Madrid Masters in May, although Djokovic won their matchup less than a month later at the French Open.
In the second round, Djokovic might play Lukas Rosol, the man who upset Nadal at Wimbledon while ranked 100th in 2012, or Benjamin Becker, who defeated Andre Agassi at the 2006 U.S. Open in the American’s final professional match.
U.S. Open
The Draw
Aug. 26-Sept. 9
The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center
Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
w-wild card
Men’s Draw
Novak Djokovic (1), Serbia, vs. Ricardas Berankis, Lithuania
Benjamin Becker, Germany, vs. Lukas Rosol, Czech Republic
Lukasz Kubot, Poland, vs. Jarkko Nieminen, Finland
Joao Sousa, Portugal, vs. Grigor Dimitrov (25), Bulgaria
Benoit Paire (24), France, vs. Alex Bogomolov Jr., Russia
w-Tim Smyczek, United States, vs. w-James Duckworth, Australia
Jurgen Zopp, Estonia, vs. Marcel Granollers, Spain
Rajeev Ram, United States, vs. Fabio Fognini (16), Italy
Tommy Haas (12), Germany, vs. Paul-Henri Mathieu, France
Yen-hsun Lu, Taiwan, vs. Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Spain
David Goffin, Belgium, vs. Alexandr Dolgopolov, Ukraine
Nicolas Mahut, France, vs. Mikhail Youzhny (21), Russia
Jurgen Melzer (29), Austria, vs. Evgeny Donskoy, Russia
Igor Sijsling, Netherlands, vs. Qualifier
Lleyton Hewitt, Australia, vs. w-Brian Baker, United States
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Spain, vs. Juan Martin del Potro (6), Argentina
Andy Murray (3), Britain, vs. Michael Llodra, France
Victor Hanescu, Romania, vs. Leonardo Mayer, Argentina
Qualifier vs. Martin Klizan, Slovakia
Florian Mayer, Germany, vs. Juan Monaco (28), Argentina
Andreas Seppi (20), Italy, vs. Xavier Malisse, Belgium
Lukas Lacko, Slovakia, vs. Qualifier
Tobias Kamke, Germany, vs. Steve Johnson, United States
Denis Istomin, Uzbekistan, vs. Nicolas Almagro (15), Spain
Stanislas Wawrinka (9), Switzerland, vs. Radek Stepanek, Czech Republic
James Blake, United States, vs. Qualifier
Marcos Baghdatis, Cyprus, vs. Qualifier
Daniel Brands, Germany, vs. Kevin Anderson (17), South Africa
Julien Benneteau (31), France, vs. Michal Przysiezny, Poland
Sergiy Stakhovsky, Ukraine, vs. Jeremy Chardy, France
Jiri Vesely, Czech Republic, vs. Denis Kudla, United States
Paolo Lorenzi, Italy, vs. Tomas Berdych (5), Czech Republic
Richard Gasquet (8), France, vs. Michael Russell, United States
Qualifier vs. Qualifier
Jan-Lennard Struff, Germany, vs. w-Guillaume Rufin, France
Aljaz Bedene, Slovenia, vs. Dmitry Tursunov (32), Russia
Feliciano Lopez (23), Spain, vs. Qualifier
Kenny de Schepper, France, vs. w-Bradley Klahn, United States
Pablo Andujar, Spain, vs. Thiemo de Bakker, Netherlands
Qualifier vs. Milos Raonic (10), Canada
Jerzy Janowicz (14), Poland, vs. Qualifier
Jack Sock, United States, vs. Qualifier
Andrey Kuznetsov, Russia, vs. Dudi Sela, Israel
Pablo Cuevas, Uruguay, vs. Janko Tipsarevic (18), Serbia
Ernests Gulbis (30), Latvia, vs. Andreas Haider-Maurer, Austria
Qualifier vs. Qualifier
Roberto Bautista Agut, Spain, vs. Thomaz Bellucci, Brazil
Qualifier vs. David Ferrer (4), Spain
Roger Federer (7), Switzerland, vs. Grega Zemlja, Slovenia
Santiago Giraldo, Colombia, vs. Carlos Berlocq, Argentina
Horacio Zeballos, Argentina, vs. Adrian Mannarino, France
Guido Pella, Argentina, vs. Sam Querrey (26), United States
Tommy Robredo (19), Spain, vs. Marinko Matosevic, Australia
Robin Haase, Netherlands, vs. Qualifier
Albert Ramos, Spain, vs. Bernard Tomic, Australia
Qualifier vs. Kei Nishikori (11), Japan
John Isner (13), United States, vs. Filippo Volandri, Italy
Adrian Ungur, Romania, vs. Gael Monfils, France
Albert Montanes, Spain, vs. Edouard Roger-Vasselin, France
w-Collin Altamirano, United States, vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber (22), Germany
Fernando Verdasco (27), Spain, vs. Ivan Dodig, Croatia
w-Rhyne Williams, United States, vs. Nikolay Davydenko, Russia
Qualifier vs. Vasek Pospisil, Canada
w-Ryan Harrison, United States, vs. Rafael Nadal (2), Spain
Women’s Draw
Serena Williams (1), United States, vs. Francesca Schiavone, Italy
Galina Voskoboeva, Kazakhstan, vs. Monica Niculescu, Romania
Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstan, vs. Olga Puchkova, Russia
Qualifier vs. Magdalena Rybarikova (29), Slovakia
Jamie Hampton (23), United States, vs. Lara Arruabarrena, Spain
Kristina Mladenovic, France, vs. Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spain
Irina-Camelia Begu, Romania, vs. Urszula Radwanska, Poland
Mandy Minella, Luxembourg, vs. Sloane Stephens (15), United States
Kirsten Flipkens (12), Belgium, vs. Venus Williams, United States
Kiki Bertens, Netherlands, vs. Zheng Jie, China
Qualifier vs. Qualifier
Lauren Davis, United States, vs. Carla Suarez Navarro (18), Spain
Kaia Kanepi (25), Estonia, vs. w-Vania King, United States
Stefanie Voegele, Switzerland, vs. Anna Schmiedlova, Slovakia
Karolina Pliskova, Czech Republic, vs. Eugenie Bouchard, Canada
Lucie Hradecka, Czech Republic, vs. Angelique Kerber (8), Germany
Agnieszka Radwanska (3), Poland, vs. Silvia Soler-Espinosa, Spain
Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor, Spain, vs. Marina Erakovic, New Zealand
Estrella Cabeza Candela, Spain, vs. w-Ashleigh Barty, Australia
w-Virginie Razzano, France, vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (32), Russia
Ekaterina Makarova (24), Russia, vs. Polona Hercog, Slovenia
Mathilde Johansson, France, vs. Bethanie Mattek-Sands, United States
Paula Ormaechea, Argentina, vs. Kimiko Date-Krumm, Japan
Qualifier vs. Sabine Lisicki (16), Germany
Jelena Jankovic (9), Serbia, vs. Madison Keys, United States
Monica Puig, Puerto Rico, vs. Alisa Kleybanova, Russia
Qualifier vs. Alexandra Cadantu, Romania
Qualifier vs. Sorana Cirstea (19), Romania
Laura Robson (30), Britain, vs. Lourdes Dominguez Lino, Spain
Caroline Garcia, France, vs. w-Shelby Rogers, United States
Petra Cetkovska, Czech Republic, vs. Sofia Arvidsson, Sweden
Olga Govortsova, Belarus, vs. Li Na (5), China
Caroline Wozniacki (6), Denmark, vs. Qualifier
Chanelle Scheepers, South Africa, vs. Qualifier
Jana Cepelova, Slovakia, vs. Qualifier
Hsieh Su-wei, Taiwan, vs. Klara Zakopalova (31), Czech Republic
Elena Vesnina (22), Russia, vs. Annika Beck, Germany
Karin Knapp, Italy, vs. Qualifier
Lesia Tsurenko, Ukraine, vs. Lucie Safarova, Czech Republic
Timea Babos, Hungary, vs. Roberta Vinci (10), Italy
Maria Kirilenko (14), Russia, vs. Yanina Wickmayer, Belgium
Qualifier vs. Eleni Daniilidou, Greece
Donna Vekic, Croatia, vs. Mariana Duque-Marino, Colombia
Heather Watson, Britain, vs. Simona Halep (21), Romania
Svetlana Kuznetsova (27), Russia, vs. Mallory Burdette, United States
Peng Shuai, China, vs. Yvonne Meusburger, Austria
w-Nicole Gibbs, United States, vs. Flavia Pennetta, Italy
Ayumi Morita, Japan, vs. Sara Errani (4), Italy
Petra Kvitova (7), Czech Republic, vs. Misaki Doi, Japan
Bojana Jovanovski, Serbia, vs. Andrea Petkovic, Germany
Tsvetana Pironkova, Bulgaria, vs. w-Alison Riske, United States
Johanna Larsson, Sweden, vs. Mona Barthel (28), Germany
Nadia Petrova (20), Russia, vs. Qualifier
Qualifier vs. w-Sachia Vickery, United States
w-Maria Sanchez, United States, vs. Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia
Qualifier vs. Sam Stosur (11), Australia
Ana Ivanovic (13), Serbia, vs. Anna Tatishvili, Georgia
Varvara Lepchenko, United States, vs. Alexandra Dulgheru, Romania
Julia Goerges, Germany, vs. Christina McHale, United States
Elina Svitolina, Ukraine, vs. Dominika Cibulkova (17), Slovakia
Alize Cornet (26), France, vs. Qualifier
Qualifier vs. Qualifier
Aleksandra Wozniak, Canada, vs. Vesna Dolonc, Serbia
Dinah Pfizenmaier, Germany, vs. Victoria Azarenka (2), Belarus
Associated Press
