Leylah Fernandez and Bianca Andreescu learned their first-round opponents at the 2022 U.S. Open Thursday as the Canadians look to make another deep run at the final tennis major of the season.
Fernandez, the highest seeded Canadian woman at No. 14, opens versus France’s Oceane Dodin
The 19-year-old of Laval, Que., advanced to the final of last year’s U.S. Open before losing to fellow teen Emma Raducanu of Britain in consecutive sets.
Fernandez’s run to the 2021 final included victories over defending champion Naomi Osaka, fifth seed Elina Svitolina and second seed Aryna Sabalenka.
The Canadian’s quarter of the bracket includes second seed Anett Kontaveit and 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams, who will be making her final appearance at the tournament.
Andreescu, who defeated Williams in the 2019 final, opens versus France’s Harmony Tan.
Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino will take on 24-year-old Magdalena Frech of Poland. The two are evenly matched with Frech ranking 104th to Marino’s ranking of 112th.
The winner will be in tough in the second round, with No. 7-ranked Simona Halep of Romania waiting after her first-round bye.
On the men’s side, Denis Shapovalov drew Switzerland’s Marc-Andrea Huesler, ranked 99th in the world, whereas world No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime’s opponent will be determined in qualifying.
Serena Williams’ first adversary at what is expected to be the last tournament of her career, the U.S. Open, will be Danka Kovinic.
Win that, and Williams could face No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in the second round.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion, who turns 41 on Sept. 26, announced this month she was preparing to step away from her playing career. She did not explicitly say when she planned to stop but made it sound as if the U.S. Open would mark her farewell.
Williams has obtained the hard-court tournament in Flushing Meadows six times.
She is just 1-3 this season, having recently returned to singles action after a year away following a first-round injury exit at Wimbledon in 2021.
Her first match back came at the All England Club in late June, and she lost her opener there in a third-set tiebreaker to 115th-ranked Harmony Tan.
Kovinic is a 27-year-old from Montenegro who is 80th in the WTA rankings this week and has been as high as 46th. Williams and Kovinic have never played each other in singles.
After winning a match at a tournament in Toronto, Williams was eliminated in consecutive sets there by Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic, then lost again in straight sets at Cincinnati against reigning U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu.
Because Williams has stated she’s preparing to wind down her tennis career, her every move will be the focus at the start of the U.S. Open.
While Williams has spent more than 300 weeks at No. 1, her lack of activity has contributed to a slide; she is 410th this week.
That meant she would not be seeded in New York and could have been placed anywhere in the field — and versus any player.
Other possible opponents for Williams, should she progress through the tournament, include No. 27 seed Martina Trevisan of Italy in the third round and 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Fernandez or 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the fourth.
She could face her sister Venus only in the final, because they are on opposite sides of the bracket.
