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The US Open Championships 2012
at Flushing Meadows, New York City.
August 27th - September 9th
Andy Murray won the "5th major" when he took the gold medal in the Olympic Games at Wimbledon. He hammered Roger Federer that day with a straight sets victory by 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. That made up ever so slightly for the victory Roger achieved against Andy a few weeks prior to that at Wimbledon in the one that really mattered. If the two meet at this event though, it won't be in the final as the draw has put them both in the same half. It would be a semi final meeting, with the other half of the draw likely to be between defending champion, Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer, who has been promoted to 4th seed due to the continuing absence of Rafael Nadal through injury.
Andy starts his new quest for his first major today in the Arthur Ashe Stadium against the Russian, Alex Bogomolov jr. It will be their third meeting, with Andy leading the head to head 2-1. That will be the second match today, following on from Sam Stosur starting the defence of he title against Petra Martic of Croatia.
Roger starts tonight. He's playing home boy, Donald Young. Roger has come back to form since the Olympics. He beat Novak 6-0, 7-6 in the final of the Cincinnati Masters last week, following his rest period after his beating at London 2012. Andy surprisingly lost early in Cincinnati, having played well to beat Sam Querry, he then played like a dick when losing to the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Super Novak beat Rafa last year.
In the ladies competition, we have four British players once more. One of them though is not former British number one Elena Baltacha. Having dropped to ranking number 116, she hasn't been afforded the luxury of automatic qualification. Her fellow Brits Laura Robson and the new British number one, Heather Watson have both gained automatic entry through the rankings for the first time. Anne Keothavong is in there once again and the fourth Brit is Johanna Konta, who's come through the qualifying rounds. She's 21 years old, born in Sydney to Hungarian parents, but has recently earned British citizenship. She's currently ranked 205.
So who do our quartet of girls play then? Heather and Anne have been given really tricky openers. Miss Watson of Guernsey, opens up the tournament today, the first match on Court 17 against the 2011 French Open champion, Li Na. She won't be overawed though. This time last year, she took the first set off Maria Sharapova before losing a tight 3rd set 3-6, which earned her much praise from the former champion.
Laura's playing today as well. She has drawn lucky, by getting a qualifier. It's a home American player though, in the shape of 17 year old Samantha Crawford, ranked 294th in the world. A big test for her and one that will be a change for Laura, coming up against an opponent in the main draw who's actually younger than herself.
Anne has the hardest match of the Brits. She's been drawn to play the 6th seed Angelique Kerber, who made the semi finals here last year and then followed that up by making the semis at Wimbledon, losing to Agnieska Radwanska. And if Anne does somehow manage to win this one, then it's Venus Williams in round two.
Johanna, the Aussie/Hungarian/Brit has been drawn to play a Hungarian born Hungarian who lives in Hungary, 19 year old Timea Babos, ranked 59.
The number one seeded player in the ladies draw is Victoria Azarenka, but she knows, as does everyone in the competition, that the real number one, is the unbeatable force that is Wimbledon and Olympic champion, Serena Williams. She blew Victoria off court in the Olympic semi final, beating her 6-1, 6-2, then did the same to Maria in the final 6-0, 6-1.
The unlucky ladies who have got Serena in their half include number two seed, Agnieska, who she beat at Wimbledon in the final 6-1, 5-7, 6-2. Also Caroloine Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic and sister Venus will be due to meet the awesome Serena at some stage soon.
Serena has unfinished business here. She was beaten by Stosur 6-2, 6-3 last year and was fined for having a rant at the umpire.
Sam slammed Serena and she did not like it!
Play is due to get under way at 4pm on Sky Sports 2HD, with hopefully the Heather Watson match first on.
MEN'S DRAW
Roger Federer v Donald Young
Maxime Authon v Bjorn Phau
Albert Ramos v Robby Ginepri
Rui Machado v Fernando Verdasco
Mardy Fish v Go Soeda
Nikolay Davydenko v Guido Pella
Ivo Karlovic v Jimmy Wang
Michael Russell v Gilles Simon
Nicolas Almagro v Radek Stepanek
Nicolas Mahut v Philipp Petzschner
Blaz Kavcic v Flavio Cipolla
Jack Sock v Florian Mayer
Sam Querrey v Lu Yen-Hsun
Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo v Somdev Devvarman
Denis Istomin v Jurgen Zopp
David Goffin v Tomas Berdych
Andy Murray v Alex Bogomolov
Hiroki Moriya v Ivan Dodig
Thomaz Bellucci v Pablo Andujar
Robin Haase v Feliciano Lopez
Marcel Granollers v Denis Kudla
Lukas Lacko v James Blake
Paul-Henri Mathieu v Igor Andreev
Santiago Giraldo v Milos Raonic
Marin Cilic v Marinko Matosevic
Daniel Brands v Adrian Ungur
Tim Smyczek v Bobby Reynolds
Guido Andreozzi v Kei Nishikori
Jeremy Chardy v Filippo Volandri
Tatsuma Ito v Matthew Ebden
Martin Klizan v Alejandro Falla
Karol Beck v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Janko Tipsarevic v Guillaume Rufin
Brian Baker v Jan Hajek
Grega Zemlja v Ricardo Mella
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe v Viktor Troicki
Philipp Kohlschreiber v Michael Llodra
Grigor Dimitrov v Benoit Paire
Mikhail Kukushkin v Jarkko Nieminen
Xavier Malisse v John Isner
Richard Gasquet v Albert Montanes
Jurgen Melzer v Bradley Klahn
Steve Johnson v Rajeev Ram
Ernests Gulbis v Tommy Haas
Mikhail Youzhny v Gilles Muller
Tobias Kamke v Lleyton Hewitt
Igor Sijsling v Daniel Gimeno-Traver
Kevin Anderson v David Ferrer
Juan Martin Del Potro v David Nalbandian
Benjamin Becker v Ryan Harrison
Lukasz Kubot v Leonardo Mayer
Tommy Robredo v Andreas Seppi
Andy Roddick v Rhyne Williams
Carlos Berlocq v Bernard Tomic
Edouard Roger-Vasselin v Fabio Fognini
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez v Juan Monaco
Alexandr Dolgopolov v Jesse Levine
Marcos Baghdatis v Matthias Bachinger
Steve Darcis v Malek Jaziri
Sergiy Stakhovsky v Stanislas Wawrinka
Julien Benneteau v Olivier Rochus
Dennis Novikov v Jerzy Janowicz
Rogerio Dutra Silva v Teymuraz Gabashvili
Paolo Lorenzi v Novak Djokovic
WOMEN'S DRAW
Victoria Azarenka v Alexandra Panova
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova v Kirsten Flikens
Hsieh Su-Wei v Magdelena Rybarikova
Virginie Razzano v Zheng Jie
Julia Goerges v Kristyna Pliskova
Mandy Minella v Olivia Rogowska
Stephanie Foretz Gacon v Anna Tatishvili
Sorana Cirstea v Sabine Lisicki
Li Na v Heather Watson
Lesia Tsurenko v Casey Dellacqua
Samantha Crawford v Laura Robson
Victoria Duval v Kim Clijsters
Varvara Lepchenko v Mathilde Johansson
Anastasia Rodionova v Julia Cohen
Edina Gallovits-Hall v Stefanie Voegele
Petra Martic v Samantha Stosur
Maria Sharapova v Melinda Czink
Lourdes Dominguez Lino v Sesil Karatantcheva
Timea Bacsinszky v Mallory Burdette
Lucie Hradecka v Anabel Medina Garrigues
Nadia Petrova v Jarmila Gajdosova
Simona Halep v Iveta Benesova
Alexandra Cadantu v Aleksandra Wozniak
Melanie Oudin v Lucie Safarova
Marion Bartoli v Jamie Hampton
Romina Oprandi v Andrea Petkovic
Kristina Mladenovic v Marina Erakovic
Daniela Hantuchova v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Yanina Wickmayer v Julia Glushko
Pauline Parmentier v Michaella Krajicek
Nicole Gibbs v Alize Cornet
Polona Hercog v Petra Kvitova
Caroline Wozniacki v Irina-Camelia Begu
Silvia Soler-Espinosa v Alla Kudryavtseva
Tsvetana Pironkova v Camila Giorgi
Ayumi Morita v Monica Niculescu
Francesca Schiavone v Sloane Stephens
Akgul Amanmuradova v Tatjana Malek
Kimiko Date-Krumm v Sofia Arvidsson
Elina Svitolina v Ana Ivanovic
Maria Kirilenko v Chanelle Scheepers
Agnes Szavay v Greta Arn
Galina Voskoboeva v Arantxa Rus
Andrea Hlavackova v Klara Zakopalova
Peng Shuai v Elena Vesnina
Ekaterina Makarova v Elini Daniilidou
Mirjana Lucic v Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez
Coco Vandeweghe v Serena Williams
Angelique Kerber v Anne Keothavong
Bethanie Mattek-Sands v Venus Williams
Johanna Konta v Timea Babos
Olga Govortsova v Tamira Paszek
Christina McHale v Kiki Bertens
Olga Puchkova v Irina Falconi
Vera Dushevina v Nasstasja Burnett
Garbine Muguruza v Sara Errani
Dominika Cibulkova v Johanna Larsson
Bojana Jovanovski v Mona Barthel
Vania King v Yaroslava Shvedova
Urszula Radwanska v Roberta Vinci
Jelena Jankovic v Kateryna Bondarenko
Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino v Shahar Peer
Ksenia Pervak v Carla Suarez Navarro
Nina Bratchikova v Agnieszka Radwanska
http://www.usopen.org/