Despite being the top seed for the US Open, world number one Novak Djokovic has it tough as he starts his campaign on August 25, while Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer has an easier draw as he hopes to claim a 18th Grand Slam title.
Djokovic would open his campaign against Argentina's Diego Schwartzman, while Federer will open his campaign against Australian Marinko Matosevic.
Djokovic and Andy Murray had been put on a quarterfinal collision course for the title on Thursday while Federer's hopes to win an 18th Grand Slam title were kept afloat with a draw.
Djokovic, who won the title at Flushing Meadows in 2011, would be trying to reach the final for a fifth straight year. In 2013, the Serbian star lost to Rafael Nadal in the title match, but the Spaniard won't defend his title because of a right wrist injury.
Djokovic could come up against 13th-seeded John Isner in the fourth round, but the big-serving American arrives in New York nursing an ankle injury that forced him out of the tournament in Winston-Salem on Thursday, Sport24 reported.
Eighth-seeded Murray, the 2012 US Open winner who hasn't won a title since his 2013 Wimbledon triumph, opens against Robin Haase of the Netherlands and could face a fourth-round clash with French ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Also in the top half of the draw, Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, seeded third, opens against Czech Jiri Vesely and could face big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic, seeded fifth, in the quarters.
Raonic, who reached his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon, will ease into the Open against a qualifier in the first round, while Federer has a lighter-looking path in the bottom half of the draw, with seventh-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov scheduled to be his quarter-final foe.
Second seed Federer, who won five straight US Open titles from 2004-2008, arrives in New York off a hardcourt title at Cincinnati and will open his campaign against Australian Marinko Matosevic.
Dimitrov, dubbed 'Baby Fed' for his game's similarities to that of the Swiss great, reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon, but he has never made it out of the first round in three US Open appearances. He'll try to reverse that trend when he opens against US wildcard Ryan Harrison.
Also in the bottom half, sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and fourth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer are projected to be quarterfinal opponents, the report added.
