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Day five at the US Open promises to bring back excitement to the stands. The big names are in action with swinging racquets and burning ambition to throttle their campaigns into top gear as the focus slowly shifts to the second week of the tournament. Rafael Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Andy Murray and Venus Williams promise to light up the courts on Friday along with a host of other top players.

Our pick for match of the day is incidentally also the first one on Arthur Ashe stadium. Daniela Hantuchova, the twenty fourth seed, poses against the twelfth seeded Russian Elena Dementieva. The leggy Slovak has been given a testy draw right from the first round and she has made most of it till now. The Russian leads the Slovak 11-4 in their head to head count though each woman has picked up a win in their two meetings this year. The match could stretch up to three sets and will be a spectacle of power tennis. Another match sure to raise eye brows will be when sixteenth seed Shahar Peer takes on nineteenth seed Flavia Pennetta. Though Pennetta leads the head to head 3-1, her lone loss to the Israeli came this year in a three set encounter.

Kim Clijsters takes on twenty seventh seed Petra Kvitova in the second match on Arthur Ashe. The Belgian defending champion has form and hunger on her side and should make it through in straight sets though Kvitova, a surprise semi finalist at this years Wimbledon does hit a mean ball. Venus Williams, the third seeded American will take on Mandy Minella of Luxemburg and should be easy thoroughfare for the veteran.

Sixth seeded Italian Francesca Shiavone takes on the dangerous twenty-ninth seeded Alona Bondarenko. The  reigning French Open champion is expected to have her hands full against the Ukrainian.Other women in action include former world no.1 Ana Ivanovic, the no.5 seed Samantha Stosur, Italian Flavia Pennetta and the hottest teen on tour Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Amongst the men's Andy Murray plays his second round match against Dustin Brown of Jamaica. Given his current form, an easy victory seems on the cards. A pair of Americans will look to make their country proud as Sam Querrey and John Isner set their sights set on a third round spot. David Nalbandian, the comeback kid and thirty-first seed will take on Frenchman Florent Serra while Swiss no.2 Stanislas Wawarinka battles Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina.

The pick of the day will be top seed Rafael Nadal's match against unseeded Denis Istomin. The US Open is the only tournament missing from his well garnished Grand Slam cabinet and his mild off court behaviour hides a burning ambition to become only the seventh man to hold all four Grand Slam titles. The unseeded Uzbek has made great progress this year and a final appearance last week at New Haven will surely give him a lot of confidence to bring into this game.

India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, the sixteenth seed, bring an Asian flavour to proceedings when they take on unseeded Michael Kohlmann of Germany and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland. Leander Paes and Cara Black, the second seeded mixed doubles team, open their campaign against the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Franmtisek Cermak. A host of Indian juniors also feature today in the boys and girls junior qualifying draw. They are Rakshay Thakkar, Sai Karthik Nakireddi and Rishika Sunkara, seeded eleventh.

Arthur Ashe Stadium

Day Session:
Daniela Hantuchova(SVK)[24] vs. Elena Dementieva(RUS)[12]
Petra Kvitova(CZE)[27] vs. Kim Clijsters(BEL)[2]
Andy Murray(GBR)[4] vs. Dustin Brown(JAM)

Night Session:
Mandy Minella(LUX) vs. Venus Williams(USA)[3]
Rafael Nadal(ESP)[1] vs. Denis Istomin(UZB)

Louis Armstrong Stadium
Samantha Stosur(AUS)[5] vs. Sara Errani(ITA)
Marco Chiudinelli(SUI) vs. John Isner(USA)[18]
Virginie Razzano(FRA) vs. Ana Ivanovic(SRB)
Sam Querrey(USA)[20] vs. Marcel Granollers(ESP)

Grandstand
Sergiy Stakhovsky(UKR) vs. Ryan Harrison(USA)
Francesca Schiavone(ITA)[6] vs. Alona Bondarenko(UKR)[29]
David Nalbandian(ARG)[31] vs. Florent Serra(FRA)
Shahar Peer(ISR)[16] vs. Flavia Pennetta(ITA)[19]

File Photograph Copyright: tripletrouble