1 of 3 | Marin Cilic of Croatia holds the championship trophy after his match against Kei Nishikori of Japan in the Men's Final in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open Tennis Championships at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City on September 8, 2014. Cilic defeated Nishikori 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to win his first US Open Championship. Photo: UPI/John Angelillo |
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FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- The United States Open Tennis Championships will see quite a few stars when the 135th Grand Slam event kicks off in New York City Monday. Both top seeds, the defending champions and two past champions are scheduled to open play on Day One, tournament officials said Friday.
Organizers on Friday announced some of the players who are set to play Monday. They include top women's seed and 2014 champion Serena Williams -- and men's defending champion and No. 9 seed Marin Cilic.
Also scheduled for play Monday are 2011 champion and five-time finalist Novak Djokovic, two-time winner Rafael Nadal and 2006 title-holder Maria Sharapova.
The exact order of play, though, will be unveiled this weekend -- probably Saturday.
In line with U.S. Open tradition, two matches will be played under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium each night of the two-week tournament. It is not yet known which matches will be selected for Monday's night session.
Williams, who is seeking her record seventh U.S. Open title, is also seeking the first calendar-year Grand Slam -- winning all four major tournaments in a calendar year -- since Steffi Graf accomplished the feat in 1988.
"I always dreamed of winning the Grand Slam. But it was just a dream. I never thought I would be close to doing something like that," she said earlier this week.
Two-time champion Venus Williams, American men's favorite Mardy Fish and rising American women's star Madison Keys are also scheduled to open play Monday. Fish has already announced that he will retire after this year's Open.
Djokovic, who won Wimbledon last month, is once again the tournament's top men's seed -- followed by Switzerland's Roger Federer, Britain's Andy Murray, Japan's Kei Nishikori (last year's runner-up), and Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka to round out the top five.
Cilic, who won the tournament last year as a 14-seed, is seeded ninth this year. Nadal is No. 8 and top American man John Isner is seeded 13th. The only other seeded American man is Jack Sock at No. 28.
On the women's side, Williams is followed by Romanian Simona Halep, Russian Maria Sharapova, Dane Caroline Wozniacki (last year's runner-up) and Czech Petra Kvitová.
Keys is the top ranked American woman, after Williams, at No. 19. Venus Williams is seeded 23rd, and Sloane Stephens is 29th.
The 2015 Open will be the last played with the old Grandstand court. A new Grandstand is under construction -- as is a fully retractable roof over Ashe Stadium, which will be operational by next year's tournament.
This year, the tournament will also go back to its 14-day schedule. The last two tournaments have been played over a period of 15 days, which put the men's final on Monday afternoon in 2013 and 2014.
That means "Super Saturday" -- the Open's traditional holding of the women's singles final and both men's semifinals on the second Saturday -- will no longer be staged, starting this year. Instead, the men's semifinals will be held on the second Friday going forward.
The U.S. Open will begin at 11 a.m. EDT Monday and runs through Sept. 13. The tournament will be broadcast live by ESPN.
