Nadal, Federer set to duke it out at US Open

Eurosport.yahoo.com - Fri 22 Aug, 10:56 PM
NEW YORK (AFP) - Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer have travelled down different roads to get the US Open, the final Grand Slam of the season.
Nadal is considered the best in the world and now has the ranking to back it up, while Federer heads into the 2008 US Open as a four-time defending champ looking to salvage a frustrating season.
Nadal, who is the top seed in a Grand Slam for the first time in his career, opens against a qualifier at the US Open which runs from Monday to September 7 at the National Tennis Center in the New York suburb of Flushing Meadows.
The 22-year-old Spaniard's first real test should come in quarter-finals where he could face Argentina's David Nalbandian. Nadal is attempting to cap a dynamic season in which he has already won Wimbledon, the French Open and the Olympic gold medal in Beijing. The US Open is the Grand Slam where Nadal has had the most trouble. He has never made it to a final in a hardcourt Grand Slam and hasn't advanced past the quarter-finals in the US Open.
If he gets through to the semis this year he could meet either number four seed David Ferrer, Scot Andy Murray or the red-hot Juan Martin Del Potro. A victory at Flushing Meadows would allow Nadal to become the first since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the US Open, Wimbledon and the French Open all in the same year.
The sky is the limit for Nadal who has an ATP best 70-8 record to go with the eight titles this year.
After spending 160 consecutive weeks ranked number two in the world, Nadal officially became world number one on Monday, snapping Federer's record reign of 237 straight weeks. Federer, who has won 12 Grand Slam titles, was the top seed at the last 18 majors. Second seeded Federer will open his tournament against unseeded Maximo Gonzalez and is in the same side of the draw as last year's runner-up and third seed Novak Djokovic.
In Beijing, Federer was upset in the quarter-finals by American journeyman James Blake. Still nobody is taking Federer lightly here as he has made the US Open his personal playground in recent years.
Like Nadal, it should be smooth sailing for Federer through the first week if he is healthy. The highest-seeded American is number eight Andy Roddick, who won the event in 2003, and countryman Blake is a spot back as the number nine. In a move that appears to have backfired, Roddick skipped the Beijing Games so he could concentrate on getting ready for the US Open. Since retiring from a tournament earlier this year in Rome with back problems, Roddick has suffered losses to three players ranked 40th or higher.
Roddick, who will be 26 at the end of the month, posted his lone Grand Slam title here five years ago.