Night shift beckons for Murray

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:45

The world number two has been given a prime-time spot on day two of the final grand slam of the year, with his first-round tie against Ernests Gulbis of Latvia having been scheduled as the second match on at Arthur Ashe Stadium during the night session.

The Briton will follow former women’s champion Maria Sharapova on to the main Flushing Meadows show court after the Russian, seeded 29th, plays Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the opening match of the evening’s play beginning at 7pm local time (12am Wednesday BST).

The day session on Ashe begins with French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova playing Germany’s Julia Georges, before fellow Russian, world number one and top seed Dinara Safin, faces Australian wild card Olivia Rogowska.

Men’s fourth seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia rounds off the day’s play when he takes on Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.

Djokovic’s compatriot Jelena Jankovic starts her challenge as women’s fifth seed on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court against Italy’s Roberta Vinci, while fourth seed Elena Dementieva of Russia has been scheduled to play at the Grandstand Stadium against Camille Pin of France.

Australian Open champion and world number three Rafael Nadal will have to wait until day three of the championship to begin his bid for a maiden US Open title and career Grand Slam.

Nadal, who missed the defence of both his French Open and Wimbledon titles due to tendinitis in his knees, is set to play France’s Richard Gasquet in the first round.

The men’s doubles competition gets under way with Britain’s Ross Hutchins partnering Australian Stephen Huss as the 15th seeds take on Belgian Olivier Rochus and Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

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