Murray deve battere Federer per vincere gli Us Open (The Guardian)

24 agosto 2012

Andy Murray could meet Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the US Open after being placed in the same side of the draw for the tournament, which begins at Flushing Meadows on Monday.

Federer, the new world No1, is seeded first while Murray, the world No4, is seeded third due to the absence of Rafael Nadal, who has a knee injury. The other half of the draw creates a likely semi-final between Novak Djokovic, the reigning US Open champion, and David Ferrer the world No5 who is seeded fourth in the absence of Nadal.

Murray, who beat Federer in straight sets in the London 2012 gold-medal match after losing to the Swiss in four sets in the final of Wimbledon, will start the tournament against Alex Bogomolov Jnr, a Russian who used to represent the USA – the first seed he is scheduled to meet is Feliciano López of Spain, the No30, in the third round. Another Spaniard, Marcel Granollers, could be the Murray's opponent in the fourth round and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, whom Murray defeated in four sets in the Wimbledon semi-final in July, is his scheduled quarter-final opponent. Federer starts the tournament against Donald Young of the USA; Djokovic faces Paolo Lorenzi of Italy and Ferrer will play Kevin Anderson of South Africa.

Murray has reached four finals at grand slam events. He has lost three of them (at the 2008 US Open, the 2010 Australian Open and Wimbledon this year) to Federer and the other, at the 2011 Australian Open, was won by Djokovic. Nonetheless, Murray's Olympic success and good form this year has prompted eminently-qualified judges to suggest that the 2012 US Open could prove to be his breakthrough event. The Swede Mats Wilander, a seven-time grand slam winner, said this week that Murray, who has thrived under the coaching of the eight-time grand slam champion Ivan Lendl, could win in New York because "he's more even-keeled, he's more positive, and there's not as much pressure for him at the US Open as there is at Wimbledon".

In the women's draw, the Olympic and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams is seeded fourth, also according to her world ranking. The American is thus in the bottom half of the draw, where her potential semi-final opponent is Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, the world No2 and second seed whom Williams beat in three sets to win her fifth Wimbledon title. Williams's first opponent at Flushing Meadow will be another American, Coco Vandeweghe; the first seed she is due to meet, in the third round, is the 32nd seed Shuai Peng of China.

The defending women's US Open champion, Samantha Stosur of Australia – who beat Williams in the 2011 final – is seeded seventh and will play Petra Martic of Croatia in the first round. The world No1 and first seed, the Olympic silver medalist Victoria Azarenka, will play Alexandra Panova of Russia; Maria Sharapova, the third seed, will play Melinda Czink of Hungary. Serena Williams's sister, Venus, is unseeded after a long battle with injury and illness – she will play another American, the wild-card Bethanie Mattek-Sands, in the first round.