Heather Watson will play home hope Lauren Davis in her US Open opener

British No 1 Heather Watson has been handed a winnable tie against American Lauren Davis in round one of the US Open, which gets under way in New York on Monday.

And Watson's fellow Brit Laura Robson will continue her comeback from injury against Elena Vesnina of Russia.

Top-seed Serena Williams is bidding to complete the remarkable feat of winning all four Grand Slam events in the same year and she will begin her campaign against another Russian, Vitalia Diatchenko.

Third-seed Maria Sharapova is a potential semi-final opponent for Williams and she will start out against Daria Gavrilova of Australia.

Watson famously came close to knocking Williams out in the third round at Wimbledon and she will hope to start another Grand Slam run with victory over Davis.

Live US Open Tennis

World No 61 Watson is ranked 23 places above Davis and, if she can come through her opener, she will face either 13th-seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia or Brazil's Teliana Pereira.

Robson reached the fourth round of the US Open back in 2012 but has plummeted down the rankings since then because of her injury problems.

However, she can play in the main draw here due to her protected ranking and will take on world No 110 Vesnina.

The victor will advance to play the winner of a high class round-one clash between 18th-seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany and Caroline Garcia of France.

Second-seed Simona Halep will start out against Marina Erakovic of New Zealand, and other interesting first-round matches include Monica Puig v Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic v Dominika Cibulkova.

First round draw (seeds in brackets):

Serena Williams (USA) (1) v Vitalia Diatchenko (Rus)

Qualifier v Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (Cro)

Qualifier v Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)

Coco Vandeweghe (USA) v Sloane Stephens (USA) (29)

Madison Keys (USA) (19) v Klara Koukalova (Cze)

Tereza Smitkova (Cze) v Andreea Mitu (Rou)

Magda Linette (Pol) v Urszula Radwanska (Pol)

Katerina Siniakova (Cze) v Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) (15)

Belinda Bencic (Sui) (12) v Sesil Karatantcheva (Bul)

Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) v Misaki Doi (Jpn)

Irina Falconi (USA) v Samantha Crawford (USA)

Monica Puig (Pur) v Venus Williams (USA) (23)

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Rus) (31) v Magdalena Rybarikova (Svk)

Qualifier v Casey Dellacqua (Aus)

Saisai Zheng (Chn) v Madison Brengle (USA)

Qualifier v Karolina Pliskova (Cze) (8)

Maria Sharapova (Rus) (3) v Daria Gavrilova (Rus)

Ana Konjuh (Cro) v Tatjana Maria (Ger)

Lara Arruabarrena (Esp) v Bojana Jovanovski (Ser)

Kristina Mladenovic (Fra) v Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) (30)

Elina Svitolina (Ukr) (17) v Qualifier

Anna-Lena Friedsam (Ger) v Kaia Kanepi (Est)

Lauren Davis (USA) v Heather Watson (Gbr)

Teliana Pereira (Bra) v Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) (13)

Carla Suarez Navarro (Esp) (10) v Denisa Allertova (Cze)

Vania King (USA) v Roberta Vinci (Ita)

Sofia Kenin (USA) v Mariana Duque Marino (Col)

Oceane Dodin (Fra) v Jelena Jankovic (Srb) (21)

Eugenie Bouchard (Can) (25) v Alison Riske (USA)

Polona Hercog (Slo) v Zarina Diyas (Kaz)

Qualifier v Alison Van Uytvanck (Bel)

Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) v Ana Ivanovic (Srb) (7)

Petra Kvitova (Cze) (5) v Qualifier

Lourdes Dominguez Lino (Esp) v Nicole Gibbs (USA)

Aleksandra Krunic (Srb) v Danka Kovinic (Mne)

Julia Goerges (Ger) v Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Svk) (32)

Andrea Petkovic (Ger) (18) v Caroline Garcia (Fra)

Laura Robson (Gbr) v Elena Vesnina (Rus)

Louisa Chirico (USA) v Qualifier

Carina Witthoeft (Ger) v Garbine Muguruza (Esp) (9)

Sara Errani (Ita) (16) v Qualifier

Qualifier v Annika Beck (Ger)

Evgeniya Rodina (Rus) v Qualifier

Timea Babos (Hun) v Samantha Stosur (Aus) (22)

Flavia Pennetta (Ita) (26) v Jarmila Gajdosova (Aus)

Qualifier v Monica Niculescu (Rom)

Christina McHale (USA) v Petra Cetkovska (Cze)

Jamie Loeb (USA) v Caroline Wozniacki (Den) (4)

Lucie Safarova (Cze) (6) v Lesia Tsurenko (Ukr)

Varvara Lepchenko (USA) v Kirsten Flipkens (Bel)

Tsvetana Pironkova (Bul) v Mona Barthel (Ger)

Olga Govortsova (Blr) v Irina-Camelia Begu (Rou) (28)

Victoria Azarenka (Blr) (20) v Lucie Hradecka (Cze)

Francesca Schiavone (Ita) v Yanina Wickmayer (Bel)

Ajla Tomljanovic (Cro) v Karin Knapp (Ita)

Alexandra Dulgheru (Rou) v Angelique Kerber (Ger) (11)

Timea Bacsinszky (Sui) (14) v Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (Cze)

Qualifier v Qiang Wang (Chn)

Camila Giorgi (Ita) v Johanna Larsson (Swe)

Qualifier v Sabine Lisicki (Ger) (24)

Alize Cornet (Fra) (27) v Kurumi Nara (Jpn)

Qualifier v Sachia Vickery (USA)

Yulia Putintseva (Kaz) v Qualifier

Marina Erakovic (Nzl) v Simona Halep (Rou) (2)