U.S. Open: Williams sisters on third-round collision course
NEW YORK— Serena and Venus Williams could be headed toward their earliest Grand Slam meeting in 20 years, a potential thirdround matchup at the U.S. Open.
If the sisters do play each other, the winner might face No.1-ranked Simona Halep in the fourth round.
That section of the women’s bracket, and a possible Roger Federer-Novak Djokovic quarterfi- nal showdown on the men’s side, provided the most intrigue at Thursday’s draw for the last major of the year.
This marks Serena’s return to Flushing Meadows after missing the hard-court tournament in 2017 — she gave birth to her daughter last Sept. 1. The 36-yearold American has won six of her 23 Grand Slam titles at the U.S. Open and was given the No. 17 seed, nine above her world rank- ing.
Serena’s opener comes against 60th-ranked Magda Linette. Should the Williams siblings both make it to the third round, they would play each other at a Grand Slam tournament sooner than they have since Venus beat Serena in the second round at the 1998 Australian Open — their very first head-to-head match on tour. They’ve gone on to play a total of 29 times (Serena leads 17-12) and that includes nine all-in-the-family Grand Slam finals, most recently at the 2017 Australian Open.
In the men’s field, No. 1-ranked defending champion Rafael Nadal opens against David Ferrer in an all-Spanish rematch of their 2013 French Open final. No. 2 Federer plays Yoshihito Nishioka.
Milos Raonic is the top-seeded Canadian at No. 25, with Denis Shapovalov No. 28 and Vasek Pospisil unseeded. Canadians Eugenie Bouchard, Francoise Abanda, Felix Auger Aliassime and Peter Polansky advanced to the final round of qualifying with straightset wins on Thursday.