Thaindian News

New York, Aug 26 (IANS) India’s top men’s singles player Somdev Devvarman plays Britain’s World No.4 Andy Murray while the country’s number one woman player Sania Mirza takes on Israeli Shahar Peer in the first round of the US Open tennis beginning Monday.

Somdev, ranked 63rd, will be playing Murray for the first time in his career and it may be too much to expect him to put it across the Scot. However, the Indian will not be easy meat for Murray, more so on his favourite hard court surface.

“You get what you get from the draw but it’s going to be very tough because Murray is one of the greatest returners in the game,” Somdev said seeing the draw which was released Thursday.

Somdev, 26, lost to some of the top-10 players in the world this year, including Spaniard Rafael Nadal, Swiss Roger Federer, Spain’s David Ferrer and American Mardy Fish. But he beat far higher-ranked players than him like Serb Jank Tipseravic (Serbia), Milos Raonic (Canada), Tommy Robredo (Spain) and Xavier Malisse (Belgium).

The Indian came close to winning his first Tour title at the South African Open, but was beaten in the final by home favourite Kevin Anderson over three sets.

Sania, ranked 63, has had a difficult time in the run-up to Flushing Meadows, failing to get past her first round matches and failing to qualify in top-graded tournaments. This year she has won only nine matches in 20 tournaments, four of these in the last one month, losing most of the times players who she could have beaten.

Significantly, she beat 24th ranked Peer 6-0, 6-1 when they met the last time three weeks ago.

World number one and top seed Novak Djokovic, with a 57-2 record this year, could face five-time champion Roger Federer in the US Open semi-finals. Before that, Djokovic is seeded to meet seventh-seeded Gael Monfils of France in the quarter-finals.

Djokovic faces a qualifier in the opening round while second seed Nadal meets Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev and third seed Roger Federer, who looks to have the trickiest section, takes on Santiago Giraldo of Colombia

Last year, the Serb beat five-time US Open champion Federer in the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows, then lost to Rafael Nadal in the final.

This year Djokovic has won all his five matches against Nadal, the most recent being in the Wimbledon final.

Nadal, seeded second, can run into a Scotsman Andy Murray at the last four stage.

Federer, seeking his first Grand Slam since the 2010 Australian Open, could face third-round clash against Bernard Tomic.

In the women’s singles, former World No.1 and 13-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, is seeded 28th, and is all set for a possible clash with fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the third round.

Three times champion Williams, returning after being absent from the circuit for almost a year because of heath reasons, won two tournaments this season at Stanford and Toronto. Sister Venus Williams, a two-time US Open champion, is unseeded in the bottom half of the draw which means the siblings won’t face each other till the final.

She is the same half as world number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, Azarenka, sixth-seeded French Open champion Li Na of China and seventh-seeded Francesca Schiavone.