2014 US Open: Top 5 matches to look forward to on Day 1

The US Open starts today and there are plenty of good matches lined up. Top seeds will be in action against unseeded players, qualifiers and wildcards. It will not be an easy march into the second round as these players are not backing away without a fight.Let us look at the top 5 matches scheduled on the opening day of the last slam of the year.

#5 Venus Williams Vs Kimiko Date-Krumm

Venus Williams comes into the Open with good showing in Montreal where she accounted for Angelique Kerber, Carla Suarez Navarro and Serena Williams. She eventually lost to Agnieszka Radwanska in the final.

She begins her campaign against Kimiko Date-Krumm, who is ten years older than her. Date-Krumm has had a tough time since the conclusion of the Wimbledon Championships, having compiled a 1-4 record on the tour since losing to Makarova at the All England Club. She failed to qualify for Montreal and Cincinnati.

The Amercian holds a 3-0 record against the Japanese player heading into today’s match. However, They last met in 2013 Miami Masters where Venus was stretched to three sets, but came out trumps 7-6 (3) ,3-6, 6-4.

It will be interesting to see how Venus starts against Date-Krumm and that will hold the key to her fortunes in the match.

#4 Andy Murray Vs Robin Haase

2012 US Open Champion Andy Murray begins his campaign against Holland’s Robin Haase tonight. The No. 8 seed Murray had a decent run in the lead up to the US Open. He lost to eventual champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarters in Toronto and lost to eventual champion Roger Federer in the quarters in Cincinnati.

After featuring in clay court tournaments in Hamburg, Gstaad and Kitzbuhel,Haase has only played two matches in the US Open Series, both of which took place last week in Winston-Salem. He defeated France’s Benoit Paire, but lost to Mikhail Kukushkin in the second round of the tournament.

The Scot leads their head-to-head rivalry 2-1, with Haase’s only victory coming in Rotterdam six years ago. In 2011 US Open, Murray came back from 2 sets down to post a win against Haase.

#3 Maria Sharapova Vs Maria Kirilenko

It’s the battle of the Maria’s on the first day of the Open. Sharapova suffered a shocking loss against Carla Suarez Navarro in Montreal, but came back stronger in Cincinnati where she beat the likes of Madison Keys and Simona Halep before losing to Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals. The 2014 French Open champion took time off between Cincinnati and US Open to train on the practice courts in New York.

Kirilenko has not played a single match on the hard courts this summer. She defeated Sloane Stephens at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, before losing to Shuai Peng in the second round.

This is their eighth meeting on the tour, with Sharapova leading it 5-2. Kirilenko’s last win against her fellow Russian was in the first round of the 2010 Australian Open.

#2 Mikhail Youzhny Vs Nick Kyrgios

Nick Kyrgios had a memorable Wimbledon this year where he progressed to the quarterfinals at the expense of Rafael Nadal. Post that, he has played just the one tournament in Toronto, where he lost to Andy Murray in straight sets. The Australian made his US Open debut last year and did not make it past the first round as he lost to David Ferrer in straight sets.

Youhzny is a two-time semi-finalist in New York and advanced tothe quarterfinals last year when he defeated Nicolas Mahut, Alexadnr Dolgopolov, Tommy Haas and Lleyton Hewitt along the way to taking a set off World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the quarters.

The World No. 23 also registered wins against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Andreas Seppi recently and carries that confidence to his match against the Australian. This is their match on the tour.

#1 Stanislas Wawrinka Vs Jiri Vesely

Stanislas Wawrinka hasn’t had a great US Open series. He lost to South African Kevin Anderson in the third round in Toronto and went on to lose against Julien Benneteau in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati. The Swiss had earlier earned a three set victory over Marin Cilic in the fourth round.

On the other hand, Jiri Vesely has not lived up to his potential this summer after losing to Nick Kyrgios at the Wimbledon Championships. The Czech did not feature in any hard court tournament in the lead-up to the US Open.

This match marks the first meeting between these two players on the tour.