US OPEN: Highlights of the Draw

The 2005 U.S. Open tennis championship starts on Monday, and the draw was released on Wednesday. Some highlights:

• Top Half of Top Half of the Draw. Maria Sharapova (1) has a possibly tough first round against Eleni Danilidou who took out Justine Henin-Hardenne in the first round at Wimbledon. After that Sharapova should cruise until she plays either Petrova(9) or defending champion Kuznetsova(5) in the first quarterfinal.
• Bottom Half of Top Half of the Draw. Venus has a really hard set of rounds: Kirilenko followed by Hantuchova followed by Serena (if she gets that far!). This is the second grand slam in a row where the sisters are set to meet in the fourth round. Honestly, I expect Serena to withdraw before this weekend. Her draw is better than Venus'. She just has to worry about playing Peng Shuai, the only player to beat Kim Clijsters on U.S. soil this year, in the third round. Whoever gets out of the fourth round will be playing Clijsters in the second quarterfinal.
• Top Half of the Bottom Half of the Draw. A very interesting quarter with Henin-Hardenne(7), Myskina(13), Pierce(12), Karatancheva and Mauresmo(3). The third quarterfinal should be Mauresmo versus either Henin-Hardenne or Pierce (who meet in the 4th round).
• Bottom Half of the Bottom Half of the Draw. Dementieva(6) has a very easy path to the fourth quarterfinal where she should meet Davenport(2). The only seeds who could stop that are Schnyder(11) in Elena's fourth round and Dechy(15) in Lindsay's.

Should be interesting! I'll try to blog daily on the US Open this year...