The 2017 Us Open starts on Monday and the schedule of play for the first day of action has been released. In the morning/afternoon session three matches will be scheduled for Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main show court at Flushing Meadows. Those matches will feature Garbine Muguruza, Marin Cilic, and Venus Williams against some peripheral contenders.
Muguruza faces Varvara Lepchenko
Muguruza has been tipped for the top when it comes to contenders at the 2017 US Open. In the first round, she will face an American veteran player in Varvara Lepchenko. Lepchenko has been around for ages now, and she has never been a weak player on tour.
She often survives the first round of majors, and she has made the fourth round of two Grand Slams. By most measures, the reigning Wimbledon champion's draw luck for the first round is a little on the unlucky side. Surely, Muguruza could have picked up a stronger non-seed, however, Lepchenko is good enough to make a match out of their first-round contest, especially if the Spaniard isn't sharp.
Is Cilic fully ready?
The start time for the court is 11 am ET with Muguruza and Lepchenko up first. To follow is Marin Cilic as he will face Tennys Sandgren of the United States. Sandgren will be making his US Open debut at the age of 26. Certainly, drawing a former champion has to be considered bad luck for him.
However, the Cilic match on Monday is an interesting one to keep an eye on. The Croat will be contesting his first match since losing in the Wimbledon final several weeks ago. If anything is lingering, then Sandgren could expose it. The American did defeat a less-than-par Nick Kyrgios a few weeks ago back in Washington.
Venus Williams will follow Cilic in a match that will conclude the first session in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Williams will face Viktoria Kuzmova, a 19-year old out of Slovakia making her Grand Slam debut. A qualifier at this year's US Open, Kuzmova has the task of taking out the only player this season to make it to two Grand Slam finals.
Each of the matches to open Arthur Ashe Stadium has an established star playing against a much more peripheral player on tour.
As the tournament is in the first round, both the men's and women's fields will have lesser talents alive in the draw. Muguruza has the difficult match of the morning session while Cilic and Williams should be fine so long as nothing is ailing them. That is more of a question with the former than the latter at this point. The big match of the day will be played in the evening session as Maria Sharapova will face Simona Halep.
