No.1 Novak Djokovic could face Roger Federer in the US Open semifinals while Thursday's draw put defending champion Rafael Nadal in line for a possible last-four clash with Andy Murray, who plays India's Somdev Devvarman in the first round.
Last year, Djokovic beat Federer, a five-time US Open champion, in the semifinals at Flushing Meadows and then lost to Nadal in the final. In 2011, Djokovic has won all five of his matches against Nadal, all of them in championship matches and the most recent his Wimbledon triumph.
With that victory Djokovic supplanted the Spaniard as No.1 in the world.
“To finish the year as No.1 for me is impossible,” Nadal said on Thursday after he took part in the draw of the women's field. “That is not going to happen, because Djokovic is going to finish No.1 because he deserves to be No.1 this year.”
Top-seeded Djokovic, who opens against a qualifier, is seeded to meet seventh-seeded Gael Monfils in the quarterfinals. Federer could meet eighth-seeded Mardy Fish in the last eight.
Potential quarterfinal clashes in the bottom half include second-seeded Nadal against fifth-seeded compatriot David Ferrer and fourth-seeded Murray against sixth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden.
In the third round, Djokovic could face former top-10 player Nikolay Davydenko or 32nd-seeded Ivan Dodig.
Federer, seeking a 17th Grand Slam title but his first since the 2010 Australian Open, could face a third-round test against Bernard Tomic, who, this year, became the youngest Wimbledon quarterfinalist since Boris Becker in 1986.
On the distaff side, World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, Azarenka, sixth-seeded Roland Garros champion Li Na and seventh-seeded Francesca Schiavone are all in the same half of the draw as Serena Williams, a three-time US Open champion whose world ranking has slipped after health concerns kept her off the court for almost a year.
Serena returned to the tour in June and won two of her first four tournaments — at Stanford and Toronto.
Despite her history of success at Flushing Meadows, organisers opted to seed her according to her ranking.
Patrick McEnroe, a former US Davis Cp captain, called Serena Williams “the most dangerous 28th seed in the history of the US Open.”
Meanwhile, India's Sania Mirza has been drawn to meet one-time doubles partner Shahar Peer in the opener.
Top seeds' first-round pairings: Men: 1-Novak Djokovic v Qualifier; 2-Rafael Nadal v Andrey Golubev; 3-Roger Federer v Santiago Giraldo; 4-Andy Murray v Somdev Devvarman; 5-David Ferrer v Igor Andreev; 6-Robin Soderling v Qualifier; 7-Gael Monfils v Grigor Dimitrov; 8-Mardy Fish v Tobias Kamke; 9-Tomas Berdych v Qualifier; 10-Nicolas Almagro v Julien Benneteau; 11-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Yen-Hsun Lu; 12-Gilles Simon v Ricardo Mello; 13-Richard Gasquet v Sergiy Stakhovsky; 14-Stanislas Wawrinka v Maximo Gonzalez; 15-Viktor Troicki v Alejandro Falla; 16-Mikhail Youzhny v Ernests Gulbis.
Women: 1-Caroline Wozniacki v Nuria Llagostera Vives; 2-Vera Zvonareva v Qualifier; 3-Maria Sharapova v Heather Watson; 4-Victoria Azarenka v Johanna Larsson; 5-Petra Kvitova v Alexandra Dulgheru; 6-Li Na v Simona Halep; 7-Francesca Schiavone v Qualifier; 8-Marion Bartoli v Qualifier; 9-Samantha Stosur v Sofia Arvidsson; 10-Andrea Petkovic v Qualifier; 11-Jelena Jankovic v Alison Riske; 12-Agnieszka Radwanska v Qualifier; 13-Peng Shuai v Varvara Lepchenko; 14-Dominika Cibulkova v Zhang Shuai; 15-Svetlana Kuznetsova v Sara Errani; 16-Ana Ivanovic v Ksenia Pervak
