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Murray seeded second for US Open
Wed 26th Aug 09 - 15:16
Britain's Andy Murray has been seeded second for the US Open, which begins on Monday, 31 August in New York.
Seeding for the tournament at Flushing Meadows follows the ATP world rankings.
Five-time defending champion Roger Federer is therefore seeded first in the men's draw, with Spaniard Rafael Nadal seeded third.
Dinara Safina is the women's top seed, followed by defending champion Serena Williams and her sister Venus, herself a two-time US Open champion.
The US Tennis Association has stuck to its policy of strictly following the world rankings when assigning seedings, even though this has resulted in Safina, who has yet to win a Grand Slam ranked ahead of Serena, who has won three of the past four Grand Slams and 11 overall.
"The US Open has the prerogative of altering its seedings but it's something we have not availed ourselves of in quite some time," said tournament director Jim Curley.
"We certainly spoke about it, but it never got to the point where we were seriously intending to not follow the rankings."
Other notable seeds in the women's draw include Beijing Olympics gold medallist Elena Dementieva (4), 2008 US Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic (5) and 2006 champion Maria Sharapova (29).
One major champion in the field but not seeded is the 2005 winner Kim Clijsters, who recently came out of retirement and received a wild card from the USTA.
In the men's draw, 2007 US Open runner-up Novak Djokovic is seeded fourth and 2003 US Open champion and 2009 Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick is 5th.
The draw for the tournament will take place on Thursday.
Qualifying is already under way with a healthy British contingent competing.
Josh Goodall suffered a first-round exit when he was forced to retire against Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands.
The British number four was trailing 7-6 2-6 2-4 when he withdrew with injury, while Alex Bogdanovic, Dan Evans and James Ward are in action later on Tuesday.
Third seed Katie O'Brien has already booked her place in the second round of women's qualifying courtesy of a 6-3 6-2 victory over Austrian Nikola Hofmanova.
"It went better than I expected to be honest," said O'Brien. "I haven't felt great in the last few weeks so it's great to come through today.
"I will definitely have to play better in my next one but this is a really good start."
Georgie Stoop was a first-round loser, beaten 6-1 1-6 6-7 (6-8) by Polish 32nd seed Marta Domachowski.
Also in the women's draw are Elena Baltacha (seeded second), Laura Robson (courtesy of a wildcard) and Mel South.
Men:
1. R Federer (Switzerland) 2. A Murray (Great Britain) 3. R Nadal (Spain) 4. N Djokovic (Serbia) 5. A Roddick (United States) 6. J M del Potro (Argentina) 7. J-W Tsonga (France) 8. N Davydenko (Russia) 9. G Simon (France) 10. F Verdasco (Spain) 11. F Gonzalez (Chile) 12. R Soderling (Sweden) 13. G Monfils (France) 14. T Robredo (Spain) 15. R Stepanek (Czech Republic) 16. M Cilic (Croatia) 17. T Berdych (Czech Republic) 18. D Ferrer (Spain) 19. S Wawrinka (Switzerland) 20. T Haas (Germany) 21. J Blake (United States) 22. S Querrey (United States) 23. P Kohlschreiber (Germany) 24. J C Ferrero (Spain) 25. M Fish (United States) 26. P-H Mathieu (France) 27. I Karlovic (Croatia) 28. V Hanescu (Romania) 29. I Andreev (Russia) 30. V Troicki (Serbia) 31. L Hewitt (Australia) 32. N Almagro (Spain)
Women:
1. D Safina (Russia) 2. S Williams (United States) 3. V Williams (United States) 4. E Dementieva (Russia) 5. J Jankovic (Serbia) 6. S Kuznetsova (Russia) 7. V Zvonareva (Russia) 8. V Azarenka (Belarus) 9. C Wozniacki (Denmark) 10. F Pennetta (Italy) 11. A Ivanovic (Serbia) 12. A Radwanska (Poland) 13. N Petrova (Russia) 14. M Bartoli (France) 15. S Stosur (Australia) 16. V Razzano (France) 17. A Mauresmo (France) 18. L Na (China) 19. P Schnyder (Switzerland) 20. A Medina Garrigues (Spain) 21. Z Jie (China) 22. D Hantuchova (Slovakia) 23. S Lisicki (Germany) 24. S Cirstea (Romania) 25. K Kanepi (Estonia) 26. F Schiavone (Italy) 27. A Kleybanova (Russia) 28. S Bammer (Austria) 29. M Sharapova (Russia) 30. A Bondarenko (Ukraine) 31. E Vesnina (Russia) 32. A Szavay (Hungary)
Text: BBC Sport