U.S. Open - Nadal handed first Grand Slam top seed

Eurosport.yahoo.com - Wed, 20 Aug 07:46:00 2008
Spain's Rafael Nadal will be the top seed in a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at this year's US Open.
The newly-crowned world number one will be followed by number two Roger Federer of Switzerland, number three Novak Djokovic of Serbia, number four David Ferrer of Spain and number five Nikolay Davydenko of Russia.
British number one Andy Murray was given a sixth seed to the year's final Grand Slam, which starts next week.
After spending 160 consecutive weeks ranked second, Nadal officially became the new world number one on Monday - ending Federer's record reign of 237 straight weeks.
A 12-time Grand Slam champion, Federer was the top seed at the last 18 majors.
The highest-seeded American is number eight Andy Roddick, who won the event in 2003, and countryman James Blake is just a spot back as the number nine.
Like the men's seeding, there were no major surprises in the women's draw, where top-ranked Ana Ivanovic is the number one seed, followed by Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Serena Williams and newly crowned Olympic champion Elena Dementieva.
French Open runner-up Dinara Safina is the sixth seed and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams is the seventh seed.
The most notable absence on the women's side is world number six and 2006 champion Maria Sharapova, who announced earlier this month that she is skipping the event to recover from a shoulder injury.
All eyes will be on Nadal in Flushing Meadows as he attempts to become the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year.
Anything seems possible for the 22-year-old these days, as he already has eight titles in 2008 - including Olympic gold in Beijing this past weekend - and an ATP-best 70-8 record.
Nadal defeated Federer in the French Open final for the third straight year and then ended the Swiss star's five-year reign at Wimbledon a few weeks later.
Federer is the four-time defending champion at Flushing Meadows.
Now-retired Justine Henin is the defending champ on the women's side, which means the last three winners will not be participating this year; 2005 champion Kim Clijsters also is retired.
The singles draws for the US Open will be announced on Thursday.