The 2013 U.S. Open draw was revealed on Thursday in New York. Novak Djokovic saw Andy Murray land on his side of the draw, while Rafael Nadal is in the same quarter as Roger Federer for a second consecutive tournament.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, the top two players in the world, both received difficult paths through the U.S. Open as the draw ceremony was held on Thursday afternoon in New York City.
Djokovic had the misfortune of getting defending champ Andy Murray in his half as opposed to a slumping David Ferrer, but Nadal is in a quarter with Roger Federer. A rematch of the Cincinnati final between Nadal and John Isner could also be on tap in the fourth round. The Spaniard also faced Federer in Cincinnati, scoring a hard-fought 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory in the quarters.
Prior to a potential blockbuster semifinal showdown against Murray, what would be a rematch of last year’s final, Djokovic is on course to meet Grigor Dimitrov in the third round. The top-ranked Serb, who opens with Ricardas Berankis, could go up against either Fabio Fognini or Benoit Paire in the last 16.
Speaking of rematches, familiar foes Murray and Tomas Berdych fell in the same quarter of the bracket. Murray topped the Czech in last year’s U.S. Open semifinals, but Berdych just dominated a Cincinnati quarterfinal encounter in straight sets. Possible roadblocks standing in the way of a Murray-Berdych quarterfinal are Nicolas Almagro (in the fourth round for the Scot) and Stanislas Wawrinka (in the fourth round for Berdych).
By far the most wide-open section is a quarter featuring David Ferrer and Richard Gasquet. Unquestionably, Ferrer is the weakest of the Top 4 seeds and Gasquet is the weakest of the 5-8 seeds. Contenders who could take advantage and book what would be a surprising semifinal spot include Milos Raonic, Jerzy Janowicz, and Ernests Gulbis. The winner of a potential Ferrer-Gulbis clash in the third round will likely run into Janowicz with a quarterfinal berth at stake.
Click here for the full draw on the U.S. Open website.
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Given his draw, Rafa is the fav to win the title! (and my pick too)
Rafa needs to play his best, unlike on clay courts, on HC to win. He said so himself. He played almost perfect HC tennis in Montreal and Cincy, with the exception of that 2nd set lapse against Dimitrov. If Rafa maintains a high level of play against Izzy, Fed, and Djokovic/Murray he will win USOpen 2013. He can afford to drop his level against the rest and win, but not against those possible 4 in his path.
I am not too sure about this Fed’s new tactic thing… You guys need to walk down your memory lanes and revisit Oz open 2012… federer was all over rafa as he raced to a 4-1 lead in set 1..he was topping over the backhand and punishing rafa ! rafa had to adjust and he started attacking fed’s forehand a lot more to catch him off guard..
Rafa also said that fed’s backhand was better than ever..he said he was alarmed after the WTF 2011 semi and also the RG 2011 final..in all these matches fed was hitting his backhand a lot more aggressively but rafa adjusted…
Rafa himself talked about ‘new tactics’ but I think that must be relative to fed’s last two performances against him in rome and IW…fed might have had one or two new patterns but in the past rafa has negated fed’s several patterns extremely well…The main problem was ROS and rafa is going to adjust here….Fed can be and I think he will be very tough but rafa will prevail .. VAMOS
no Karlovic near Rafa. looks like he will play Pospisil R2.
Rafa can sleepwalk through his draw till the final.
Nole, Muzz and Fed can afford it till they reach Qf’s after which it’s going to be a really tough battle for them especially for Nole and Muzz.
On another note, I feel that instead of Uncle Toni, Rafa should have persisted with his assistant coach who helped Rafa to bring out a totally new and solid game (more attractive too) unlike Uncle Toni.
Tignor was also discussing this…considering working with Roig more.. Toni has talked about the need ‘to play more aggressively’ but may be Roig has brought the aggressive best out of rafa? who knows
I am also interested to see how rafa serves at the open..will be see big serving again? I do not think so …His serve will be great though in my opinion
Tignor has picked Nole over Rafa in the final
http://espn.go.com/sports/tennis/picks
Majority of espn experts have picked Rafa
johhn weirtham from SI has also picked Rafa to win (over nole)
Barry Cowan from Sky has also picked Rafa ! Rafa is the experts’ big favourite…
Jon Wertheim ****
http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2013/08/expert-picks-2013-us-open/48846/#.Uhg-m9KSAxk
The tennis.com experts are split between rafa and nole….Bodo has picked rafa and Tignor has picked nole
hmm.. On tennis-x I think Sean has picked Muzz over Rafa.