It would also see her set a new open era record of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, as she is now tied with German Steffi Graf on 22, after beating Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final in July.
Advertisement
He has also reached seven consecutive finals heading into the last major of 2016 and with coach Ivan Lendl back by his side, the 29-year-old looks primed for another challenge.
But Williams has played just three singles matches since Wimbledon, hindered by a right shoulder injury.
Williams’s bid to retain her Olympic singles title ended in Rio de Janeiro this month when she was sent crashing out of the third round by Elina Svitolina.
Elsewhere, Johanna Konta will start her campaign across the pond against doubles specialist Bethanie Mattek-Sands, an American who has never gone past the fourth round in the singles of a major tournament.
Rio was his first outing since an injury-enforced early withdrawal from Roland Garros, and the punishing schedule of 13 matches in 12 days at the Olympics and caught up with him when he lost in the third round at Cincinnati.
“I think a lot of it has to do with her shoulder because that serve is the big key for her to win matches”.
The 27-year-old del Potro, nearly pushed into retirement by three wrist surgeries, is back at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2013, earning a wild card invitation with a stirring run to an Olympic silver medal.
“I will not put too much pressure on it, if the day will come when I will reach number one, it would be fantastic”, Kerber said.
“That would be an interesting match, to say the least, with Murray”. I was just happy I was able to make it out here today.
Murray can not meet either Djokovic or Nadal until the final in NY but should he get there, the Scot will become only the fourth man in the Open era to make all four grand slam finals in a calendar year, joining Federer, Djokovic and Rod Laver.
Serena, the top seed and world No. 1, is set to take the Ashe Stadium court under the lights on Tuesday night against Russian Ekaterina Makarova, against whom Williams is 4-1, including a victory in the 2014 semifinals.
“It’s tough to repeat of course the results of past year”, Vinci said. When the final Grand Slam of the year gets underway on Monday, the pressure could be on again. A trip to Las Vegas to see Graf, her childhood idol, inspired her to new heights before an experience at the end-of-season WTA Finals proved a catalyst for her breakthrough at the Australian Open.
Fresh from doubling the number of Wimbledon and Olympic titles in his trophy cabinet, Andy Murray is in the form of a lifetime. Over and above that, Serena will be eyeing a stronghold on the number 1 rank that came within touching distance from being taken from her by Kerber.
The sweet 16th meeting of these true blue tried-and-true vets doesn’t need to be half as good as their last two meetings at majors to be the best match of the day in NY.
“I love this question, I love it”, Kerber said.
Advertisement
The first round clash between 2015 French Open finalist Lucie Safarova and Daria Gavrilova is also one to watch out for.
