US Open seedings set up potential Nadal vs Federer final
There have been no surprises in the announcement of the men’s seeds for the US Open, with world No. 1 Rafael Nadal to enter the tournament as top seed ahead of second-ranked Roger Federer.
The seedings guarantee the two great rivals will sit on opposite sides of the draw, meaning that should they meet it would be in the final – a stage of the tournament that Federer has reached every year since 2003 with a return of five titles, but which has so far eluded Nadal.
Indeed, the seedings for the year’s final Grand Slam have stayed true to the current ATP rankings, with the top nine ranked players filling the top nine seedings in the order in which they are ranked, meaning that Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling round out the top five seeds in that order.
Andy Roddick, who gained four places in this week’s rankings to re-enter the top-10 at world No. 9 is the ninth seed, while his fellow Americans John Isner, the in-form Mardy Fish and Sam Querrey fill the 18th, 19th and 20th seedings between them.
The withdrawals through injury of defending champion and world No. 10 Juan Martin del Potro and 11th ranked Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga mean that 12th-ranked David Ferrer will enter the tournament as the 10th seed.
At the other end of the seedings, world No. 33 David Nalbandian and world No. 34 Lleyton Hewitt sneak in as the 31st and 32nd seeds respectively thanks to Del Potro and Tsonga’s absences from the tournament.
The seeding of the in-form Nalbandian – who at the start of this month was ranked as the world No. 117 before he claimed the Washington title to jump 72 places in the rankings and continued to improve with a quarter-final showing at the Masters 1000 in Toronto and a third round finish at the Cincinnati Masters – is good news for both the player himself and the top seeds, who will at least avoid a tricky first or second-round match-up with the Argentinian.
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