Williams sisters the highlight of women's schedule at US Open

 THE name Williams dominates the schedule in the Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first day of the US Open tennis on Monday.

 UNDER STARTERS ORDERS: Defending champion Serena Williams and sister Venus begin their US Open campaigns on Monday

Serena and Venus are two of the biggest attractions at Flushing Meadows and organisers will be keeping their fingers crossed they both make safe progress through their opening round matches.

Defending champion Serena, seeded second in New York despite winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon this season, will be the first in action against fellow American Alex Glatch.

Glatch has been a first-round loser at the US Open for the past three years and won't be expected to provide her illustrious opponent with too testing a contest.

Venus, on the other hand, may have a few more problems with her opponent, world number 47 Vera Dushevina.

The 22-year old Russian has proved herself a tricky opponent on the WTA Tour and will relish a scrap if the match goes to three sets.

Former champion, Belgium's Kim Clijsters is the other big draw on day one and will open proceedings in the Arthur Ashe Stadium against Ukraine's Viktoriya Kutuzova.

The Belgian only returned to tour in August but has already claimed the scalps of French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and world number eight Viktoria Azarenka.

France's world number 14, Marion Bartoli is a likely second round opponent for the former world number one but a quarter final showdown between Clijsters and Venus would be one of the highlights of the tournament.

Belarus' Azarenka is also in action on Monday against Romania's Alexandra Dulgheru but the eighth seed has endured a long season and is struggling to reproduce the form which won her the Miami crown in March.

In-form players Australian Sam Stosur and Italy's Flavia Pennetta also begin their campaigns on Monday against Japan's Ai Sugiyama and Romania's Edina Gallovits respectively.