US Open women’s draw announced
The US Open women’s singles draw has set up a potential blockbuster fourth round match between top seed Caroline Wozniacki and 2006 champion Maria Sharapova.
Sharapova will begin her US Open campaign against Australia’s Jarmila Groth, a player who reached the round of 16 at both the French Open and Wimbledon this year, while another former champion in Svetlana Kuznetsova has drawn Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm in her opening match.
Kuznetsova also shares a tough quarter of the draw with Wozniacki and Sharapova.
Defending champion Kim Clijsters has landed in a quarter of the draw that sets up a potential quarter-final clash with French Open runner-up Sam Stosur, though based on her past performances here the Australian has some improving to do if that’s to happen, as she’s yet to progress beyond the second round in New York.
Second seeded Clijsters will commence her title defence with a match against Hungary’s Greta Arn, while Stosur begins her tournament with a match against Russia’s Elena Vesnina, and if she wins that a could face fellow Aussie Anastasia Rodionova in the second round.
Dual US Open champion Venus Williams sits in the same quarter of the draw as French Open champion Francesca Schiavone. Venus begins her US Open with a first round match against Italy’s Roberta Vinci, while Schiavone takes on Japan’s Ayumi Morita in her first round match.
It’s been far from plain sailing for Schiavone on court since she became a Grand Slam champion in Paris, and she could find things tough should a potential third round match against last year’s US Open giant-killer Melanie Oudin eventuate. Oudin has drawn a qualifier in her opening match.
The unseeded Ana Ivanovic, whose ranking has plunged in 2010 after an extended run of poor form but who showed glimmers of her old self in reaching the semi-finals in Cincinnati earlier this month, will take on Eastbourne winner Ekaterina Makarova in her first round match.
Last year’s top seed Dinara Safina, unseeded this year and in a quarter of the draw that contains Clijsters, Stosur, Ivanovic and Elena Dementieva, begins her tournament with a match against 24th seed Daniela Hantuchova.
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