The world No1, who lost in the semi-finals here last year, gets her campaign under way against the unseeded Russian. Follow all the action with Tim Hill
Email tim.hill@theguardian.com or tweet @timmyhilleh
12.44am BST
Williams to serve first. Let’s play tennis!
12.43am BST
Serena Williams is 63-1 in the first round of major tournaments. Quiz question: who inflicted her only first-round loss, and when?
12.36am BST
OK, we’re almost there. Serena Williams is playing her 90th match on Arthur Ashe – she’s won 79 of them. We’ll have a brief knock-up, and then we’ll begin.
12.33am BST
The players are just exiting the locker room, and they’ll be on court shortly.
12.26am BST
We’re about five minutes away from match time. The sun’s just going down in Queens, but it’s warm still: about 79F, or 26C.
12.24am BST
Earlier, Australian Bernard Tomic was beaten by Damir Dzumhur, and he wasn’t happy, so he lobbed some bad words at a spectator. More here:
Related: Bernard Tomic delivers foul-mouthed insult to spectator at US Open
12.18am BST
A couple more results from earlier: Juan Martin del Potro beat Diego Schwartzman in straight sets, and Stan Wawrinka was too good for Fernando Verdasco. But Ana Ivanovic was dumped out in the first round at Flushing Meadows again, beaten in straight sets by Denisa Allertova.
11.59pm BST
We’re just in between the day session and the evening session here, and we’re about 30 minutes away from the start of play.
11.58pm BST
A reminder: Serena Williams is going for grand slam No23 here. If she were to triumph, she’d overtake Steffi Graf and become the most decorated player in the Open era. But how is her shoulder injury holding up?
“I haven’t played a lot, I haven’t practiced a lot, but I’m just now starting to feel a little better,” Williams said last week. “Hopefully just every day I will keep going higher.”
11.54pm BST
There’s some Australian interest tonight, too. Nick Kyrgios is taking on Aljaz Bedene on the old Grandstand court, and you can follow that here:
Related: Nick Kyrgios v Aljaz Bedene: US Open tennis first round – live!
11.48pm BST
Here’s Kathy Podgers: “Hi Tim, just because Serena is so great, it’s still shameful to forget Venus.”
Yep, you’re right: seven major championships, two grand slam finals and four Olympic gold medals is some achievement. Plus, with 49 singles titles, Venus is behind only her Serena among active players on the WTA Tour.
11.46pm BST
Venus Williams is through! 6-2 5-7 6-4 against Kozlova, and the veteran American is moving on.
11.45pm BST
And what of Makarova? As mentioned, the tall left-hander is ranked 29 in the world, so it’s a slight surprise that she’s not among the seeds. Plus, she’s coming off a gold-medal winning performance in Rio, where she won the women’s doubles with her compatriot Elena Vesnina. She’s also got a history against Serena: she beat her in the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2012.
But Williams has punished Makarova since that loss, winning all three matches without dropping a set, and in their most recent meeting, Williams cruised to a 6-1, 6-3 victory in the 2014 semi-finals here.
11.39pm BST
Serena Williams’ sister Venus, the sixth seed, is in a battle with Ukraine’s Kateryna Kozlova on Arthur Ashe right now: they’ve been playing for more than two and a half hours, and Kozlova has just broken as Williams served for the match! Four-five in the final set, and Kozlova is serving.
11.36pm BST
It’s a warm Tuesday evening in New York, and Serena Williams is making her 2016 US Open debut. The world No1, fresh from a disappointing performance at the Olympics in Rio, plays Ekaterina Makarova, the 29th-ranked Russian, in a juicy first-round contest, and she’ll be hoping to achieve what she couldn’t manage last year: victory in her “home” grand slam.
Twelve months ago Williams was defeated, shockingly almost, by the Italian Roberta Vinci in the last four, and her shot at the so-called “Serena Slam” was gone. It was a big surprise: the imperious Williams, arguably the finest female tennis player of all time, beaten by a player her first ever grand slam semi-final. Few predicted it, and the defeat stung: Williams took the rest of the year off to regain her fitness and her motivation.
6.30pm BST
Tim will be here shortly. In the meantime, read how the favorite in the men’s singles fared on Monday night:
During the match, Djokovic hit first serves around 100 mph, sometimes slower — 25 mph or so below his usual average speed. He hit second serves in the low 80s. He flexed his right arm, the one he has used to wield a racket on the way to 12 grand slam titles, and appeared generally unhappy.
Related: Novak Djokovic troubled by arm during US Open win over Jerzy Janowicz
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