Samantha Stosur is on guard against another US Open ambush, desperate to avoid a second straight first-round loss at the hands of a American upstart.
Stosur opens her bid for a second title at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday (Wednesday 1am AEST) with the painful memories of last year's shocker still fresh in her mind.
After lifting the trophy in 2011 and making the quarter-finals in 2010 and 2012, Stosur crashed out in the opening round 12 months ago to American qualifier Victoria Duval, a 17-year-old ranked 296th in the world.
"I certainly don't want to go through that all over again," Stosur told AAP ahead of her opener against 20-year-old world No.49 Lauren Davis.
Stosur crushed Davis for the loss of only two games in their only previous meeting, in the first round of the 2011 Australian Open.
But that was three years ago and Davis has since edged to within 28 rankings spots of Stosur.
"Playing a young American, she's going to be up for it. She's going to have a lot of crowd support, so I've got to go out there and really try and impose my tennis on her," Stosur said.
"She doesn't have the kind of game style where she's going to step up there and really blow you off the court.
"So I'm going to have time, but I have to make sure that I've got that balance between being consistent and working the point but also playing the way I want to be playing."
Having been stung before, Stosur is taking nothing for granted.
"The first round is often some of the trickiest matches you're going to play at a grand slam," she said.
"It's a grand slam and everyone's out to play the best they can."
Stosur is one of eight Australians in action on day two, including five women.
Casey Dellacqua, seeded 29th, plays Austrian Patricia Mayr-Achleitner, Jarmila Gajdosova meets American Madison Keys, Ashleigh Barty faces Czech Barbora Strycova Zahlavova and Croatian-born Ajla Tomljanovic represents Australia for the first time against Spanish 15th seed Carla Suarez Navrarro.
In the men's event, Marinko Matosevic has a daunting showdown with second seed and five-times champion Roger Federer, Bernard Tomic plays German Dustin Brown and Sam Groth tackles Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
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