The US Open men’s and women’s singles draws are out and the first-round assignment for the Aussies have been set:

[24] Sam Stosur v Lauren Davis

[29] Casey Dellacqua v Patricia Mayr-Achleitner

[WC] Jarmila Gajdosova v [27] Madison Keys

Ajla Tomljanovic v [15] Carla Suarez Navarro

Lleyton Hewitt v [6] Tomas Berdych

Nick Kyrgios v [21] Mikhail Youzhny

Marinko Matosevic v Roger Federer

Matt Ebden v Tobias Kamke

Sam Groth v Albert Ramos-Vinolas

[WC] Bernard Tomic v Dustin Brown

Other notable first-up matches include:

[1] Serena Williams v Taylor Townsend

[5] Maria Sharapova v Maria Kirilenko

[1] Novak Djokovic v Diego Schwartzman

[14] Marin Cilic v Marcos Baghdatis

Playing one of your fellow countrymen or countrywomen is a double-edged sword – on one hand your country is guaranteed a player in the second round but to get there it will be at the expense of one of your own. Excluding qualifiers, this is the scenario that four men and 12 women face in the US Open first round.

Not a great day on the qualifying beat for the Australians with Thanasi Kokkinakis, James Duckworth, Olivia Rogowska and Arina Rodionova all losing their second-round matches.

Tomas Berdych followed in the footsteps of such tennis luminaries as Anna Kournikova, Venus Williams and the Bryan Brothers to ring the New York Stock Exchange bell. Ding ding.