Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic were named the top seeds at the start of the US Open tennis championship.
Serena Williams will be, without a doubt, the favorite and main candidate for winning this year’s final Grand Slam that is scheduled to start on Monday this week in New York city. At 33, the American star will be the oldest woman to be seeded in the first position, but in interviews she claims that her game is getting a lot better as she is aging. A close second will be rapidly ascending Romanian player Simona Halep, followed by Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki, the runner-up of the previous season.
Seeded fifth in the women category, Petra Kvitova, the Czech player that has won the 2011 and 2014 Wimbledon championships is followed by Lucie Safarova, her compatriot that reached the finals this year at French Open. 2014 US Open finalist, Kei Nishikori was seeded on the fourth position this year. Two time US Open winner Venus Williams is seeded on position 23, while 2004 victor Svetlana Kuznetsova from the Russian Federation has been seeded 30th.
If Serena Williams wins the championship, the victory will add her to the list of the female tennis players that have won all four slams in the same season – more commonly known as a calendar year Grand Slam. Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court and Steffi Graf were the three women to achieve this legendary performance before, and six persons in total if we consider the male division as well.
Williams said that all she wants is to play tennis and that she doesn’t necessarily needs to hear about its long history and records, which she considers nothing but distractions in her way of winning this tournament.
In the male category, Novak Djokovic is named the top seed. Rafael Nadal, who has been Grand Slam champion 14 times is placed eight, whereas the US Open champion of last year, Marian Cilic, is in ninth position. Seeded third, Andy Murray will attempt to regain the title of US Open champion he won back in 2012.
This year, the US Open tournament will be hold at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center situated in Flushing, New York. The event will last for two weeks, from August 31 to September 13.
Photo credits: 1
