While the likes of Diego Schwartzman, Lucas Pouille and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga could be dangerous, Murray at 100 per cent would certainly be fancied to get past all of them.

The Scot also found himself on the other side of the draw to both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, meaning his seeded opponent in the semi-finals is German wunderkind Alexander Zverev, who is yet to reach a grand slam quarter-final.

Serious doubt remains, however, about the state of Murray's hip, which so troubled him at Wimbledon and contributed to a quarter-final exit.

There were reports of Murray still showing a limp during practice in New York this week, and the Scot will give the first update about his fitness at a press conference on Saturday.

In the women's draw, seventh seed Johanna Konta will begin her campaign against Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic but things get tougher fairly quickly for the 26-year-old, who is in the same half as Simona Halep and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza.

The wow moment of the draw undoubtedly came when second seed Halep was paired with wild card Maria Sharapova, who is making her grand slam comeback following her doping ban.

Among the other British players, Heather Watson, bidding to win a main draw match in New York for the first time after six consecutive losses, faces unpredictable Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.

Kyle Edmund takes on 32nd seed Robin Haase, Aljaz Bedene faces young Russian Andrey Rublev and qualifier Cameron Norrie meets veteran Dmitry Tursunov - ranked 642 and playing under a protected ranking.

Norrie was the only one of three British players to make it through the final round of qualifying, beating Go Soeda 6-1 7-6 (7/5).

Naomi Broady was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-2 by Nicole Gibbs while Katie Boulter fell 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 6-2 to Ipek Soylu.

AP