The seeding for the US Open Championships 2013 was released on Wednesday with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal taking the top two spots, while Roger Federer settled for the No. 7 seed in the final Grand Slam event of the Year.
As expected, the organizers for the US Open Championships decided to stick with the current ATP World Rankings, allowing Djokovic to be the No. 1 seed in all four Grand Slam tourneys this year.
Djokovic, gunning for his second US Open title, is facing intense pressure to defend his world No. 1 ranking as Nadal continues to climb in the ATP World ladder.
Nadal is coming off back-to-back victories in Montreal and Cincinnati, catapulting him to the No. 2 spot in the world rankings, and more importantly, giving him a morale-boost ahead of the US Open Championships in Flushing Meadows mere days away.
The Mallorcan netter has already captured nine singles titles this year, including five of the first seven ATP Masters 1000 series events.
However, his victories in Montreal and Cincinnati proved to be the most impressive, knowing his tendency to sustain injuries while playing on the hard court.
Meanwhile, Great Britain's pride and reigning US Open champ Andy Murray is seeded No. 3 in the tournament. Murray entered the hard-court season as the No. 2 ranked player in the world, but a third round exit in Montreal and a quarterfinal loss in Cincinnati dealt a big blow to his current standings.
Another highly-rated player forced to settle with a lower seeding was Federer, who's surprisingly out of the top five for the first time in over a decade.
Federer, seeded No. 7 in the US Open Championships, could potentially face either Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal as early as the quarterfinal round of the tourney.