Murray gets lucky with draw for his grand slam return

Duckworth is only man ranked lower at US Open Konta faces tough test against sixth seed Garcia

Next week, Andy Murray will enter his first grand slam tournament as an unseeded player since 2006 – barring another last-minute withdrawal of the kind he staged at three of the past four majors.

Happily, the US Open’s seeding computer showed mercy last night as it threw up world No445 James Duckworth – the only man on the entry list ranked lower than Murray’s 378 – as his opening opponent.

Murray pulled out of Wimbledon on the eve of the tournament, leaving Benoit Paire, his slated opponent, to face a “lucky loser” from qualifying instead. But the signs suggest that he will dip a toe in the grand-slam water here, if only to see how his body responds to bestof-five-set tennis.

Duckworth is a 26-year-old Australian whose career graph peaked three years ago at No 82 in the world. Having suffered a horrible sequence of foot and arm injuries, he used a protected ranking to squeak in by right.

This will be an interesting fixture for Murray. He has a 4-3 win-loss record since he began his comeback from chronic hip trouble at Queen’s in June. In four tournaments to date, he has yet to play an opponent ranked outside the top 100.

Clearly, Murray can be grateful that he did not land a big-hitter, but the chances of a deep run still look remote. Should he make it past Duckworth, he will come up against a dangerous Spaniard in his next match – either Fernando Verdasco or Feliciano Lopez. Third seed Juan Martin del Potro makes a daunting potential third-round opponent.

Johanna Konta, the only British woman to earn direct entry, is also unseeded. But by contrast with Murray, her luck is stubbornly refusing to turn. Konta suffered a horrible draw and will play sixth seed Caroline Garcia in a battle between the French and British No1s.

At least Kyle Edmund and Cameron Norrie can both be satisfied, as Edmund prepares to face Paolo Lorenzi – the world No96 from Italy – while Norrie will come up against another Australian in world No108 Jordan Thompson.

At the last four slams, Edmund has been the last Briton standing in either singles draw. The first fellow seed on his potential path is out-ofsorts No18 Jack Sock. In all probability, though, world No 1 Rafael Nadal would be waiting in the fourth round. Edmund’s preparations received a setback last night, however, when he lost 6-1, 6-2 to Steve Johnson, the world No32, at the Winston-salem Open.

The position of Novak Djokovic, who is only seeded No6 because of last year’s injury problems, was the big question surrounding yester-