Serena Williams is seeking to complete the first Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988.Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Serena Williams could face Maria Sharapova for her second successive major semi-final as she seeks to complete the Grand Slam at the U.S. Open.
Thursday's draw filled the top-ranked Williams's quarter of the bracket with Americans, nine in all.
In the third round, Williams could face 29th-seeded Sloane Stephens, who beat her in the 2013 Australian Open and is coming off her first WTA title in Washington this month. Another up-and-coming U.S. player, 19th-seeded Madison Keys, could await in the fourth round.
And in the quarter-finals, one potential opponent is her sister, 23rd-seeded Venus Williams. Another possible quarter-final foe is 12th-seeded Swiss teen Belinda Bencic, who recently upset Williams in Toronto en route to a breakthrough title.
Williams is seeking to complete the first Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988. She beat Sharapova in the semi-finals of Wimbledon for her 17th consecutive victory over the Russian on the way to her second "Serena Slam" – four major championships in a row, but just not in the same year.
Second-seeded Simona Halep and fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who lost to Williams in last year's U.S. Open final, are in the other half of the draw.
Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., will play Alison Riske of the United States in the first round.
On the men's side, second-seeded Roger Federer and No. 3 Andy Murray could meet in one semi-final, with No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 4 Kei Nishikori, last year's runner-up, in the other.
Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., and Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil are in the same bracket as Djokovic.
Pospisil will face Austria's Andreas Haider-Maurer in the first round, and if he advances, could play Djokovic in the second.
Raonic takes on American Tim Smyczek in the first round.
Djokovic could face Rafael Nadal, who's seeded just eighth, in the quarter-finals. Nadal has a tough first-round match against fast-rising 18-year-old Borna Coric of Croatia, who just missed out on a seed with a ranking of 35th in the world and last year won their only head-to-head meeting.
Murray has an intriguing opening match with another young player who just missed out on a seed, 37th-ranked Nick Kyrgios.
The 20-year-old Australian comes into the U.S. Open with controversy swirling around him, facing a provisional suspension from the ATP for comments made to Stan Wawrinka in Montreal. During their match Aug. 12, a courtside microphone picked up Kyrgios saying that fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis had slept with a player who reportedly is now Wawrinka's girlfriend.
Kyrgios has given Murray little trouble on the court, losing in straight sets in this year's Australian and French Opens.
Nishikori could face defending champ Marin Cilic, who's seeded ninth, in the quarters in a rematch of last year's final.