Saturday 29 August 2015 13:21, UK
Andy Murray will take on controversial Australian youngster Nick Kyrgios in the first round of the US Open.
The 2012 champion has been seeded third for the final Grand Slam event of the year and has been handed one of the trickiest opening ties possible against the big-serving 20-year-old.
British No 1 Murray has already played Kyrgios twice in majors this season, defeating him 6-3 7-6 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and 6-4 6-2 6-3 in round three at Roland Garros.
Currently 37th in the world rankings, Kyrgios is a brilliant shot-maker and reached the last eight at Wimbledon last year, beating Rafa Nadal on the way.
However, he has also attracted criticism for his volatile on-court behaviour and was given a 28-day suspended ban and a $10,000 fine for crude comments he made about Stan Wawrinka's girlfriend during a Rogers Cup match earlier this month.
Murray will be seeking his third Grand Slam title when the event starts at Flushing Meadows next Monday and enters the tournament in good form, having won the Rogers Cup before reaching the semi-finals in Cincinnati last week.
But Murray has recently been defeated by Roger Federer in the semi-finals at both Wimbledon and Cincinnati, and he will face the Swiss great in the semis once again in New York if the duo both reach the last four.
All in all, Murray has been handed a potentially tough draw, with French Open champion Wawrinka a possible quarter-final opponent.
If Murray can get past Kyrgios, he will face either useful Frenchman Adrian Mannarino or a qualifier in round two.
Murray's fellow Brit James Ward is also in that section of the draw and he will begin his campaign against the 30th seed, Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci, while British No 2 Aljaz Bedene has been drawn against Latvian Ernests Gulbis.
Federer has also been handed one of toughest possible first-round draws and he will begin his quest for a sixth US Open crown against the world No 33 Leonardo Mayer of Argentina.
The semi-final in the other half could pit top seed Novak Djokovic against last year's beaten finalist Kei Nishikori, who upset Djokovic at that stage of the tournament last year.
Dual former champion Nadal is the eighth seed this year and could play Djokovic in the quarter-finals, but first he will have to win a tricky first-round tie against Croatian youngster Borna Coric, who defeated him in Basel last year.
Djokovic has already won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, and the Serb will start out in New York with a tie against Joao Souza of Brazil.
First round draw (seeds in brackets):
Novak Djokovic (Srb) (1) v Joao Souza (Bra)
Vasek Pospisil (Can) v Andreas Haider-Maurer (Aut)
Teymuraz Gabashvili (Rus) v Pablo Andujar (Esp)
QUALIFIER v Andreas Seppi (Ita) (25)
Roberto Bautista-Agut (Esp) (23) v Pierre-Hugues Herbert (Fra)
Jerzy Janowicz (Pol) v Pablo Carreno-Busta (Esp)
Joao Sousa (Por) v Ricardas Berankis (Lit)
Simone Bolelli (Ita) v David Goffin (Bel) (14)
Milos Raonic (Can) (10) v Tim Smyczek (USA)
Fernando Verdasco (Esp) v Tommy Haas (Ger)
Marco Cecchinato (Ita) v Mardy Fish (USA)
Qualifier v Feliciano Lopez (Esp) (18)
Fabio Fognini (Ita) (32) v Steve Johnson (USA)
Pablo Cuevas (Uru) v Dudi Sela (Isr)
Qualifier v Diego Sebastian Schwartzman (Arg)
Borna Coric (Cro) v Rafa Nadal (Esp) (8)
Kei Nishikori (Jpn) (4) v Benoit Paire (Fra)
Marsel Ilhan (Tur) v Radek Stepanek (Cze)
Samuel Groth (Aus) v Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukr)
Qualifier v Tommy Robredo (Esp) (26)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) (19) v Jarkko Nieminen (Fin)
Lukas Lacko (Svk) v Marcel Granollers (Esp)
Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) v John Millman (Aus)
Qualifier v Gael Monfils (Fra) (16)
Marin Cilic (Cro) (9) v Qualifier
Lucas Pouille (Fra) v Qualifier
Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) v Mikhail Kukushkin (Kaz)
Qualifier v Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) (17)
Jeremy Chardy (Fra) (27) v Ryan Shane (USA)
Florian Mayer (Ger) v Martin Klizan (Svk)
Filip Krajinovic (Srb) v Qualifier
Radu Albot (Mol) v David Ferrer (Esp) (7)
Stan Wawrinka (Sui) (5) v Albert Ramos-Vinolas (Esp)
Hyeon Chung (Kor) v James Duckworth (Aus)
Gilles Muller (Lux) v Ruben Bemelmans (Bel)
Victor Estrella Burgos (Dom) v Jack Sock (USA) (28)
Viktor Troicki (Srb) (20) v Francis Tiafoe (USA)
Rajeev Ram (USA) v Ryan Harrison (USA)
Ernests Gulbis (Lat) v Aljaz Bedene (Gbr)
Donald Young (USA) v Gilles Simon (Fra) (11)
Kevin Anderson (Rsa) (15) v Qualifier
Austin Krajicek (USA) v Santiago Giraldo (Col)
Benjamin Becker (Ger) v Denis Istomin (Uzb)
Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Esp) v Dominic Thiem (Aut) (20)
Thomaz Bellucci (Bra) (30) v James Ward (Gbr)
Qualifier v Qualifier
Qualifier v Adrian Mannarino (Fra)
Nick Kyrgios (Aus) v Andy Murray (Gbr) (3)
Tomas Berdych (Cze) (6) v Bjorn Fratangelo (USA)
Denis Kudla (USA) v Qualifier
Sam Querrey (USA) v Nicolas Mahut (Fra)
Janko Tipsarevic (Srb) v Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) (31)
Bernard Tomic (Aus) (24) v Damir Dzumhur (Bih)
Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Kaz) v Lleyton Hewitt (Aus)
Robin Haase (Ned) v Dustin Brown (Ger)
Thanasi Kokkinakis (Aus) v Richard Gasquet (Fra) (12)
John Isner (USA) (13) v Malek Jaziri (Tun)
Qualifier v Mikhail Youzhny (Rus)
Jiri Vesely (Cze) v Paolo Lorenzi (Ita)
Federico Del Bonis (Arg) v Ivo Karlovic (Cro) (21)
Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) (29) v Qualifier
Jared Donaldson (USA) v Lukas Rosol (Cze)
Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp) v Steve Darcis (Bel)
Leonardo Mayer (Arg) v Roger Federer (Sui) (2)
You can watch live coverage of the US Open, starting at 4pm on Monday August 31 on Sky Sports 1.
Non-subscribers can also watch without a contract through online streaming service NOW TV.
By purchasing a Sky Sports Day Pass for £6.99 or Sky Sports Week Pass for £10.99, you can enjoy access to all seven Sky Sports channels and watch on a TV with a NOW TV Box or on a range of devices.
