World number ones Roger Federer and Victoria Azarenka, Olympic men’s champion Andy Murray and defending women’s champion Samantha Stosur are among the tennis stars playing on Monday at the US Open. Three-time US Open champion Kim Clijsters, playing in the final event of her career, and Russian beauty Maria Sharapova, who completed a career Grand Slam by winning the French Open in June, are also in action on day one. The year’s final Grand Slam tournament begins on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts with 56 matches, with the men’s first round spread across the first three days and the women’s opening round set to be completed in two days.
Top seed Federer has the last night match at Arthur Ashe Stadium against American Donald Young while Stosur, seeded seventh, begins her title defense in the first match on Arthur Ashe Stadium when she faces Croatian Petra Martic.
British third seed Andy Murray, fresh off an Olympic gold medal after beating Federer in the London final at Wimbledon, will play American Alex Bogomolov in the first men’s match on Ashe. Azarenka is fourth on Louis Armstrong Stadium against Russia’s Alexandra Panova while Sharapova and Clijsters claim the other spots at Arthur Ashe.
Federer targets record sixth US Open: Roger Federer aims to cap his dramatic renaissance by becoming the first man in 87 years to win six US Open titles when the season’s last Grand Slam event takes place from Monday.
World number one Federer currently has five New York wins, a mark he shares with US legends Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors, an equal-best performance in the Open era. But the last man to win six was Bill Tilden, who achieved the feat in the strictly amateur days of 1925 before finishing his career with seven in 1929.
Having just turned 31, Federer is back at world number one thanks to a record-equalling seventh Wimbledon title, his 17th Grand Slam trophy. He was a silver medallist at the Olympics and has six tour titles in total this year, a statistic capped by a record fifth Cincinnati Masters where he swept past Novak Djokovic in the final. Federer won his five straight US Open titles between 2004 and 2008 but missed the chance of a sixth in 2009 when he lost a five-set thriller to Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro. Rafael Nadal, missing through injury this year, and Djokovic claimed the 2010 and 2011 editions.
Federer’s record at the majors remains one of outstanding consistency — he has reached the quarter-finals or better at 33 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments. Twelve months ago, he squandered match points and lost to Djokovic in the semi-finals in New York, but has gone 56-7 in 2012. “There have been a lot of sacrifices,” said the top seed. “I took some time to assess the situation and how should I move forward. “It has been a great last 12 months. I always did believe that if things turned for the better for me I was always going to be very near to World No. 1. I wasn’t far off.
Never a doubt I’d be back on top, says Federer: Roger Federer, who went two and a half years without a Grand Slam title before winning the record 17th major of his career last month at Wimbledon, said he never doubted he would return to the top. In his final session with reporters ahead of Monday’s start of the US Open, the 31-year-old Swiss top seed said Saturday that he always knew he had the form to bounce back and regain the World No. 1 ranking. “Doubts? Maybe you believe less or you believe more, but doubt, not really,” Federer said. “I knew how close I was. I was actually extremely close on many occasions to give myself chances to win Slams.
“So it was just a combination of many things that set me back at times, but I never gave up. Mentally I was always ready to do the work and willing to travel and give it a shot. At the end it all paid off. I’m extremely happy. “People think I can win every Grand Slam that comes up and if I don’t win the US Open I will never win one again. It’s always the same story. I’m just happy I was able to get Wimbledon. It just shows what I knew, if I do play well I can win Grand Slams.”
