The draw was announced a little after noon in New York City. Mostly, this was placing the seeds. In other Slams, they would announce all the players. This made the process quicker.
For at least the fourth consecutive Slam, Roger Federer was placed on the same side of the draw as Novak Djokovic. This is also fifth consecutive year that Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were placed on the same side of the draw. Usually, Federer and Djokovic have been seeded so they had a chance to meet. Early on, Federer was either 1 or 2 seed, while Djokovic was 3, then later on Djokovic moved to 2, then 1, while Federer was 3, so the odds are ridiculous that they keep being placed in the same half of the draw.
The US Open, like 3 of the 4 Slams, seeds based on rankings from the previous week. Only Wimbledon seeds based on a formula. The formula is now objective. In the past, Wimbledon had a committee decide who should be seeded where. Even so, some complained that Andy Roddick should have been seeded higher. Due to his early loss at Cincinnati, an event Roddick had reached the semis of the previous year, his ranking slipped to 21, and so he’s seeded out of the top ten for the first time in quite a few years.
Section 1
Let’s start in Section 1, the 16 players in Novak Djokovic’s draw. Djokovic has an easy draw until the fourth round. The seed that he’s expected to meet in the third round is the 32nd seed, Ivan Dodig. Dodig beat Nadal in Montreal, but Nadal said he was only able to train 4 days prior to Montreal due to his heel problem around Wimbledon. Davydenko is in Djokovic’s section of the draw, but he’s yet to show his game is back in the form it would take to beat the number one seed.
The seeds expected to reach the fourth round would be Dolgopolov or Gasquet. Gasquet has a tough opening round playing Stakhovsky. Ivo Karlovic is in this section of the draw too. Either player could be tough, but neither have shown the consistency to beat Djokovic. Of course, this assumes Djokovic is healthy.
Section 2
The top seed in Section 2 is 7th seed, Gael Monfils. The other top seed in his section is Tomas Berdych, the 9th seed. This is kinda tough because as the 7th seed, Monfils could have been paired up with anyone from 9 to 16, so he had the highest seed possible. Other seeds in Section 2 include Tipsarevic and Granollers.
Monfils has a tough draw. Right off the bat, he has to play Grigor Dmitrov. Dmitrov has yet to beat a big-name player, but if Monfils is healthy, it should be no problem. Monfils tends to start off slow, but usually is fine after a set. In the second round, Monfils could meet Ferrero.
For Berdych, Tipsarevic is a potential third round match. Tipsy beat Berdych in Montreal, and has a winning record against the Czech. Both are playing well, so it’s tough to meet each other this early.
This section of the draw is fairly open, but Monfils should be a mild favorite.
Section 3
Federer opens up with Giraldo, who can be a tough player, but usually on clay. In his section, the other top seed is Viktor Troicki seeded 15th. That’s pretty good for Roger. Cilic and Stepanek are the other two seeds. Cilic has a tough opener, playing Ryan Harrison. Stepanek also has a tough opener playing Kohlschreiber who upset Roddick in Cincy.
There’s no one hugely scary to Federer in this section. Cilic has had better days, but he hasn’t shown he is ready to make that leap back up to the top ten yet.
Section 4
The top seed in Section 4 is Mardy Fish, the 8th seed. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is in this section as well, as the 11th seed. The other seeds are Llodra, the 29th seed, and Verdasco, the 19th seed. There are five qualifiers in this section. There are solid players in this section, but no one too scary except for maybe Kevin Anderson. Verdasco vs. Tsonga is a potential third round match and could be interesting.
Section 5
The top seed in this section is Robin Soderling who is seeded 6th. Soderling hasn’t played since just after Wimbledon when he won a title in Sweden. Fortunately, he faces a qualifier. The question is how much practice has he had to this point.
Gilles Simon, the 12th seed, is the other top seed. The other two seeds in the section are maybe more dangerous than the top two seeds. Juan Martin del Potro, the 18th seed, is in Simon’s section. John Isner, who has played reasonably well, is in Soderling’s section. If Soderling isn’t 100%, this could be a good chance for Isner. Soderling might even have to worry about Alex Bogomolov in the 2nd round, who his having his best year on tour yet.
Isner opens up with a tough player in Marcos Baghdatis whose rank has slipped considerably since last year. Whoever wins this would be favored to get to the third round since there are a bunch of wildcards in this section.
Section 6
Andy Murray is the top seed in this section. For the second year in a row, he’s in the same group as Stan Wawrinka, though the seedings wouldn’t have them meet until the fourth round, if both got that far.
Murray starts with Somdev Devvarman, a steady and quick player who was two times NCAA men’s champ. Devvarman has worked his way into the top hundred. The two have never played. Murray could play Haase, who is doing reasonably well at Winston-Salem, having reached the quarterfinals. Haase has a big game and pushed Nadal to five sets at Wimbledon last year, but has had inconsistent results this past year.
He could meet Feliciano Lopez in the third round, who he beat at Wimbledon.
Wawrinka is a weak section. The other top seed in his group is Chela. Donald Young and Dmitri Tursunov are in this section.
Section 7
Ferrer is the top seed (seeded 5) in this section. The second high seed is Nicolas Almagro, seeded 10th. Andy Roddick, seeded 21, and Florian Mayer, seeded 26th, are in this section. All things considered, Roddick’s draw isn’t too bad. There are a bunch of American in his section. He starts off with veteran Michael Russell, then might face Jack Sock in the second. Almagro is a better matchup than Ferrer for Roddick, and so he might meet Ferrer in the fourth round, at which point, meeting a top seed is expected. He’s lucky that he doesn’t have to play a top 4 seed. It could be better for Roddick, but it’s pretty decent.
Ferrer opens up with Igor Andreev who can be tough, but there’s not been much word from Andreev in quite some time. He could meet James Blake in the second round. Blake might be Ferrer’s toughest challenge, but if he gets past him, Ferrer should be good until the fourth round.
This section is as good as Ferrer could hope for. He’s beaten Roddick before as well as Almagro.
Section
Nadal, seeded 2, is the top seed in this section. His fingers are apparently better. He helped place the seed for the women’s draw. Kim Clijsters might have done the same for the men’s draw, but she isn’t playing in this year’s US Open due to injury.
The other top seed is Mikhail Youzhny, seeded 16. Youzhny is the lowest seed that Nadal could meet in the fourth round. They met in last year’s US Open semifinals.
The other two seeds are Jurgen Melzer, seeded 17 (seeding-wise, the worst match for Youzhny), and veteran Ivan Ljubicic. Nadal has a relatively easy draw. He might face David Nalbandian if Ljubicic doesn’t reach the third round. Youzhny opens up with a tough Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis is hoping to break a losing streak in the first round. He hasn’t managed to get past the first round since Wimbledon 2009 where he lost in the 2nd round to Andy Murray (and lost to him at the US Open that year in the first round). Still, Gulbis managed to win Los Angeles, so it is going to be interesting for Youzhny.
Overall
Section 5 seems the toughest because del Potro and Isner are there, but Soderling is out of practice, which is bad news for him. Section 2 is somewhat tough because it has a lot of Spaniards.
The top four seeds appear to have relatively comfortable draws. It’s the nest four seeds that may have some work ahead of them.
