US Open top seeds Williams, Djokovic coming off injuries

“She never really stops”.

In our previous report, we wrote about Kerber’s odds to replace the 34-year-old American in her current WTA Rankings given that the German wins a Grand Slam title in the nearing US Open.

Venus Williams, whose seven Grand Slam titles include two US Opens, is among a handful of former champions among the seeds including 2004 victor Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russian Federation and 2011 champion Samantha Stosur of Australia. Her bid to retain her Olympic singles title ended in Rio de Janeiro when she was sent crashing out of the third round by Elina Svitolina. Since completing his Grand Slam collection by winning the French Open he has played only nine matches (compared with Murray’s 23).

Serena Williams is poised to break Steffi Graf’s 25-year-old record for consecutive weeks at world number one but Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza are relishing the opportunity to dethrone the queen of the sport. Ekaterina Makarova, a player who owns a victory over her at the 2012 Australian Open, is a unsafe unseeded player who can cause problems. My mum always says to me: ‘It’s just a tennis match.’ Although I did call her and she was tearing up a bit.

“I know that there is a little room still for me to get better physically”.

“I’m just hoping that Monday, when the tournament starts, I’ll be able to get as close to the maximum of executing my backhand shot as possible”, Djokovic said, referring to the shot most affected by his injury.

The second-ranked Scot, who has lost just twice since early May, is favoured by some to dethrone an ailing Novak Djokovic next week and win a second US Open title, though the Serbian top seed remains the favourite with bookmakers.

There are certainly pitfalls waiting this time around too.

Twelve months later, Williams, who has just turned 35, is still chasing Graf.

“I’m feeling good because I have had great matches in the last (few) weeks and especially a lot of positive emotions”.

Defending women’s champion Flavia Pennetta of Italy retired shortly after winning the 2015 crown.

But that hasn’t dented his confidence that he can claim a second US Open, four years after his breakthrough in NY saw him become the first British man in 76 years to win a Grand Slam title. In addition to that, French Open victor Garbine Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska are also predicted to pull Williams out from the court during the semi-finals.

The Scotsman opens against Czech Lukas Rosol, has Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria or Feliciano Lopez of Spain as potential fourth-round foes with Japan’s sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori possibly waiting for him in the quarters. Vinci is seventh and American Madison Keys is seeded eighth.

The announcement Friday means that Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig becomes the 32nd and final seed, as Stephens had been seeded 24th.

Kerber, a German compatriot of Graf, had her chance to snatch top spot last week by winning the Cincinnati title but faltered in the final, a slip-up which kept her at number two heading into NY. Janowicz, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2013, has been plagued by knee trouble in recent months and has seen his ranking slump to 228 in the world.

Murray can not meet either Djokovic or Nadal until the final in NY but should he get there, the Scot will become only the fourth man in the Open era to make all four grand slam finals in a calendar year, joining Federer, Djokovic and Rod Laver. “That’s all I can do now”, she said.