The main singles draw for the last Grand Slam tournament in 2013 was made on Thursday. Nole will open campaign in his ninth US Open appearance against world no.126 Ricardas Berankis.
It will be Novak’s first career encounter with the 23-year-old Lithuanian.
Competitions at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows (New York) began on August 26, and will last until September 9.
The world no.1 might face either German Benjamin Becker or Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic in the second round.
Novak’s possible rivals in the later stages of the tournament are:
3rd round: Grigor Dimitrov (BUL, 25), Lukasz Kubot (POL)
4th round: Fabio Fognini (ITA, 16), Benoit Paire (FRA, 24)
Quarter-finals: Juan Martin del Potro (ARG, 6), Tommy Haas (GER, 12)
Semi-finals: Andy Murray (GBR, 3), Tomas Berdych (CZE, 5), Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI, 9)…
Rafael Nadal (ESP, 2), David Ferrer (ESP, 4), Roger Federer (SUI, 7) … are in the bottom half of the draw, and Nole can’t meet them before the finals.
Last year Novak finished runner-up to Andy Murray in an epic five-set thriller that lasted four hours and 54 minutes [6-7(10), 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, 2-6]. The final tied the record as the longest at Flushing Meadows.
Djokovic won 39 matches of 46 he played in New York. This season he has a 44-8 match record (25-4 on hard).
The 2011 US Open champion feels he is ready to peak for the year’s final Major event after reaching the semi-finals in Montreal and the quarter-finals in Cincinnati.
“I thought I played quite decent in these two weeks. Just the both matches that I lost were 7-6 and 7-5 in the third set, and in important moments, I wasn’t finding that maybe extra strength to be calm and to play the right shots,” Novak said. “That’s what happens. You go through these periods. But my confidence is still there.“
”I love playing Grand Slams. I had a very good record in US Open in last five, six years that I have been coming back here, so I really look forward to it.”
Photo: Getty Images
