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Serena Williams could face Azarenka in 3rd round

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NEW YORK (AP) — The biggest question heading into the U.S. Open

draw was: Which highly seeded woman could be stuck facing Serena

Williams in the third round? The answer: No. 4 Victoria Azarenka of

Belarus.

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“Poor, poor, poor Victoria Azarenka,” seven-time major champion

John McEnroe said at Thursday’s draw ceremony in Flushing

Meadows.

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Azarenka was a Wimbledon semifinalist in July, as was No. 22 Sabine

Lisicki of Germany, who could play Williams’ older sister Venus in

the second round. Both Williams sisters lost in the fourth round at

the All England Club.

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Serena Williams is a three-time U.S. Open champion who leads all

active women with 13 Grand Slam titles. Venus Williams is a

two-time winner in New York and owns a total of seven major singles

trophies.

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The Grand Slam tournament starts Monday.

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After missing nearly a year of action because of a series of health

problems, Serena Williams returned to the tour in June and won two

of her four tournaments. She is seeded 28th for the U.S. Open,

which followed the rankings rather than taking into account

players’ past performances.

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McEnroe’s brother, former U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick, called

her “the most dangerous 28th seed in the history of the U.S.

Open.”

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Venus Williams, meanwhile, is ranked 36th and unseeded; she could

face No. 14 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the third

round.

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Looking at the latter stages of the men’s field, Novak Djokovic and

Roger Federer were drawn to possibly meet in one semifinal, while

defending champion Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray could meet in the

other.

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The top-ranked Djokovic is 57-2 in 2011, and one of those losses

came against Federer in the French Open semifinals, ending the

Serb’s 43-match winning streak that began in December. A year ago

at Flushing Meadows, Djokovic beat five-time U.S. Open champion

Federer in the semifinals before losing to Nadal.

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This year, though, Djokovic is 5-0 against Nadal, with all of those

matches coming in tournament finals, most recently at Wimbledon.

That allowed Djokovic to overtake Nadal in the rankings in

July.

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“To finish the year as No. 1 for me is impossible. That is not

going to happen, because Djokovic is going to finish No. 1, because

he deserves to be No. 1 this year. For me, it is not a question.

For me, it is not something that worries me,” Nadal said after

participating in the draw for the women’s field. “What really

worries me is to be competitive. … I did not lose the No. 1

(ranking). Djokovic won (it).”

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The possible men’s quarterfinals are No. 1-seeded Djokovic against

No. 7 Gael Monfils; No. 3 Federer against No. 8 Mardy Fish, the

highest-seeded American man in New York for the first time; No. 2

Nadal against No. 5 David Ferrer; and No. 4 Murray, who is 0-3 in

Grand Slam finals, against No. 6 Robin Soderling, a two-time French

Open runner-up.

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The women’s quarterfinals could be No. 1-seeded Caroline Wozniacki,

the 2009 runner-up at the U.S. Open, against reigning French Open

champion Li Na; Serena Williams or Azarenka against 2010 French

Open champion Francesca Schiavone; 2006 U.S. Open champion Maria

Sharapova against the woman who beat her in this year’s Wimbledon

final, No. 5 Petra Kvitova; and Venus Williams or No. 2 Vera

Zvonareva, last year’s U.S. Open runner-up, against 2007 Wimbledon

finalist Marion Bartoli.

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Seeking his first U.S. Open title, Djokovic appears to have been

placed in a section that doesn’t look as though it will be

particularly difficult. He will play a qualifier in the first

round, then could face former top-10 player Nikolay Davydenko or

No. 32 Ivan Dodig in the third.

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Federer might face a third-round test against Australian teen

Bernard Tomic, who became the youngest Wimbledon quarterfinalist

since Boris Becker in 1986. Federer has won a record 16 Grand Slam

titles, but none since the Australian Open in January

2010.

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“I think Federer is going to win another major,” John McEnroe said.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be this one here. But he seems to be

healthy. He hasn’t played his best tennis, but he wants to save it

for the majors.”

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