U.S. Open glance
■ Lookahead to Monday: Venus Williams is the only American player with a major singles title to her name in the men’s or women’s fields and will open her tournament on Day 1 in Arthur Ashe Stadium against Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia, a 19-year-old making her Grand Slam main-draw debut. Williams’ seven major championships include two at the U.S. Open, in 2000 and 2001. At 37, she is the oldest woman in the tournament, and is coming off a runner-up finish at Wimbledon. She also was the runner-up at the Australian Open this year.
Also appearing in Ashe during the day session: No. 3-seeded Garbine Muguruza, who beat Williams at the All England Club, against Varvara Lepchenko of the U.S. and 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic against Tennys Sandrgen of the U.S. Sandgren was named after his great-grandfather and said that he gets plenty of questions about that apt moniker. “I had a little bit of expectations just to be not terrible, because you can’t be kind of named so similar to a sport and not be at least adequate at that sport,” Sandgren said at the French Open, where he made his maindraw debut at a major.
The most anticipated matchup comes at night in Ashe: Five-time major champion Maria Sharapova plays her first Grand Slam tournament match since the 2016 Australian Open against No. 2-seeded Simona Halep. Sharapova returned from a 15-month doping ban in April. Other big names on Monday’s schedule include No. 4 Alexander Zverev, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova against former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, Sloane Stephens of the U.S. against 2015 U.S. Open runner-up Roberta Vinci, No. 7 Johanna
Konta, and top American men John Isner, Jack Sock and Sam Querrey.
■ Monday’s forecast: Cloudy. High of 77 degrees.
■ Stat of the day: 46-3, 10-0 — Career first-round records for Sharapova in all Grand Slam tournaments and at the U.S. Open.
■ Quote of the day: “You have to restart and start everything back again, and to peak the form it’s a little bit tougher than if you’ve been practicing the whole time.” — Cilic, who hasn’t played a match since the Wimbledon final on July 16 and didn’t even practice for two weeks because of an injured left leg.