Defending-champion Serena Williams, who won her first W&S title last year, and Novak Djokovic are the No. 1 seeds for this year’s $7.2 million tournament. Djokovic is a four-time W&S finalist, but it remains the only ATP Masters 1000 event he’s never won.
Sweden’s Roger Federer, whose six W&S titles include last year’s, is seeded second, followed by Great Britain’s Andy Murray and Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
Williams, who is in position to win the calendar Grand Slam for the first time since 1988, is the decisive No. 1 player in the WTA rankings. Starting with last year’s W&S, which followed her disappointing Wimbledon, Williams is 59-3 and has won seven tournaments. She currently owns all four Grand Slam titles, starting with last year’s U.S. Open.
A Williams win would make her the first W&S repeat champion since Peaches Bartkowicz in 1966 and 1967, according to the tournament website.
Maria Sharapova is seeded second, followed by Romanian Simona Halep and Czech Petra Kvitova.
Wimbledon quarterfinalist CoCo Vandeweghe and two-time W&S finalist Mardy Fish – who’s in his final season – were added to the field as wild cards earlier this week.
Perhaps the most famous player fans can get an early look at is ninth-seeded Rafael Nadal, who failed to get one of the first-round byes that are awarded to the top eight seeds.
Sessions at the W&S – one of five non-Grand Slam events in the world where top men’s and women’s players compete in the same week at the same site – are scheduled for 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, with the men’s semifinals being played on Aug.22 at 1 p.m. and the women’s semifinals at 7 p.m. The singles finals are scheduled to be played on Aug. 23, starting at 1 p.m.
Many of the sessions are sold out, but fans still can purchase grounds passes. These do not include Center Court reserved seating, but they do allow fans to watch everywhere else at the venue.
Fans can find ticket and other information at wsopen.com.
About the Author