Wednesday, August 23 2006 11:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The men's and women's qualifying tournaments for next week's US Open gets underway at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday (22 Aug, 2006), a day ahead of the main draw.

Top seed in the men's qualifying draw is the Canadian Frank Dancevic who opens against Tim Smyczek of the United States.

Women's top seed is the veteran Australian Nicole Pratt who starts against Vilmarie Castellini of Puerto Rico.

Wildcards for the year's last Grand Slam event are former finalist Mark Philippoussis of Australia as well as young American hopefuls Donald Young, Scoville Jenkins, Alex Kuznetsov, Wayne Odesnik, Sam Querrey and Phillip Simmonds.

Men's top seed for Wednesday's (23 Aug, 2006) draw will be defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland who will be aiming to become only the third man to win three consecutive US Open titles in the professional era after John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl. France's Amelie Mauresmo, the winner at the Australian Open and at Wimbledon this year, will be top seed in the women's tournament which will be without defending champion Kim Clijsters who has been forced to pull out after injuring her left wrist in last week's Montreal tournament.