US Open draw 2018: Men's, women's brackets set

Serena Williams will face a strong string of contenders in pursuit of another US Open title.

The official draw for the 2018 US Open, the final tennis Grand Slam event of the year, was announced on Thursday.

The top seeds on the men’s side are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro and Alexander Zverev, in that order. The top four for the women are Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, Sloane Stephens and Angelique Kerber, though these seedings were known beforehand.

Stephens and Nadal are the defending singles champions in New York.

Serena Williams could face her sister Venus in the third round and then top seed Halep in the fourth round. Stephens finds herself in the top half of the draw, which could put her in match against Halep or Williams late in the tournament. On the men’s side, Nadal begins his defense against David Ferrer, and Federer could face Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

Williams will be seeded 17th for the tournament, as the United States Tennis Association opted to bump her up a few spots from her current world ranking after considering “a variety of factors,” namely her absence from the game due to the birth of her daughter.

In effect, she’s been giving something not entirely unlike maternity leave, which has bumped her up far enough to where she will be projected to face a lower seed in the third round and beyond. Williams last played in the in the second round of the Cincinnati Open, where she lost to Petra Kvitova.

Nadal and Djokovic were the men’s winners at the last two ATP Masters 1000 events, in Toronto and Cincinnati, respectively. Halep and Kiki Bertens were the winners of those events on the WTA side, while the Connecticut Open is still ongoing as of the US Open draw.

Women’s Draw

Men’s Draw