Serena, Venus Williams may meet at US Open

If the Williams sisters do play each other at the US Open, the winner might face world No.1 Simona Halep in the fourth round.

American ace Serena Williams

Serena Williams is facing a possible third round match with her sister Venus at the US Open. (AAP)

Serena and Venus Williams could be headed toward their earliest grand slam meeting in 20 years, facing a potential third-round match-up at the US Open.

If the sisters do play each other, the winner might face world No.1 Simona Halep in the fourth round.

That is certainly the most intriguing section of the women's and men's brackets revealed at Thursday's draw for the last major of the year.

This marks Serena's return to Flushing Meadows after missing the hard-court tournament in 2017 - she gave birth to her daughter last September.

The 36-year-old American has won six of her 23 grand slam titles at the US Open and was given the No.17 seed by the U.S. Tennis Association - nine places above her current ranking.

Venus, who won five of her seven grand slam singles trophies in New York, is ranked and seeded 16th. She faces a tricky first-round match against Svetlana Kuznetsova, whose two major championships include the 2004 US Open.

Kuznetsova was given a wildcard entry for the tournament, where main-draw play begins on Monday.

Serena's opener comes against 60th-ranked Magda Linette of Poland. Should the Williams siblings both make it to the third round, they would play each other at a grand slam tournament sooner than they have since Venus beat Serena in the second round at the 1998 Australian Open - their very first head-to-head match on tour.

They've gone on to play a total of 29 times - Serena leads 17-12 - and that includes nine all-in-the-family grand slam finals, most recently at the 2017 Australian Open.

In the men's field, No.1-ranked and defending champion Rafael Nadal opens against David Ferrer in an all-Spanish rematch of their 2013 French Open final. No.2 Roger Federer plays Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round.

Federer faces a potential quarter-final against No.6 seed Novak Djokovic, the Wimbledon champion who beat him two weeks ago in a tune up and is considered the tournament favourite.

Fourth seed Alexander Zverev and seventh-seeded Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open champion, are also in Federer's half of the draw along with No.30 seed Nick Kyrgios, the Australian whom Federer could meet in the third round.

Stan Wawrinka, the 2016 US Open champion who missed last year's tournament because of injury and was given a wildcard into this year's field, faces No.8 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria in one of the headline matches of the first round.

Wawrinka, a three-time major titlist, eliminated Dimitrov in the first round at Wimbledon in June.

Nadal's half of the draw includes No.3 seed and 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro - who could face another former champion in Andy Murray in the third round - and fifth-seeded Kevin Anderson, the Wimbledon and US Open runner-up.

Besides Federer-Djokovic, the other possible men's quarter-finals are Nadal-Anderson, Del Potro-Dimitrov and Zverev-Cilic.


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Source: AAP



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Serena, Venus Williams may meet at US Open | SBS News