? Scot drawn in Rafael Nadal's half of US Open draw
? Heather Watson to face Maria Sharapova
Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal find themselves on the same side of the draw for the fourth slam in a row and are likely semi-finalists in the US Open, which starts on Monday.
They avoided each other in Melbourne, when Nadal hobbled out in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open against David Ferrer, then the Spaniard beat Murray at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Murray's path to another high-profile semi-final against Nadal is tricky rather than daunting, while the favourite, Novak Djokovic, and the five-time champion Roger Federer are destined to meet for the second year in a row on the other side of the draw, which was made on Thursday.
The Scot's first match is against the 64th-ranked Indian Somdev Devvarman, whom he has not played before and whose form since winning the Commonwealth Games gold medal has been moderate.
Robin Haase poses a bigger threat if they meet in the second round. The big-hitting Dutchman is coming off a win in Kitzbuhel last month and beat Murray the only time they met, three years ago in Rotterdam.
Thereafter, a likely cast of opponents for the world No4 reads: the 25th seed Feliciano L�pez, against whom Murray has a 5-0 record; the 14th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, who beat him in four sets in the third round here last year but has not performed up to his ability lately, then either the sixth seed Robin Soderling or Juan Mart�n del Potro, who is seeded 18th but is yet to rediscover the form that took him to the title in 2009.
Nadal, the second seed, plays Andrey Golubev, ranked 97th in the world, in the first round. The 24-year-old Kazak beat Wawrinka in the first round in Cincinnati.
Novak Djokovic, still the favourite and No 1 seed despite aggravating a shoulder that forced him to retire against Murray in the Cincinnati final on Sunday, plays a qualifier first up.
Federer's first match is against Santiago Giraldo, of Colombia.
In the women's tournament, Britain's Heather Watson, the junior champion here two years ago, plays the Russian Maria Sharapova in the first round. Watson is one of three British players here by right, along with Elena Baltacha and Anne Keothavong.
Baltacha, Britain's No1, meets the American wild card Jamie Hampton, whom she beat in three sets in Melbourne last year. If she reaches the second round of a slam for the fifth time in a row, she is scheduled to play the former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. Keothavong has drawn Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa in the first round.
The match of the round pits the fourth seed Victoria Azarenka against Serena Williams, returning to Flushing Meadows for the first time since her controversial exit two years ago and seeded 28 here because of her long lay-off with injury. The former champion withdrew with a sore toe in Cincinnati.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/aug/25/andy-murray-somdev-devvarman-us-open
Allen Stanford Consumer affairs Australia cricket team Radio 1 Switzerland Mark Bright
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