She was defeated in straight sets by fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta in the 2015 final, but with the defending champion opting to retire after claiming her first Grand Slam title, the honour falls on Vinci to get this year’s tournament underway at Flushing Meadows.

The seventh seed will face Germany’s Anna-Lena Friedsam in the first round, as she looks to repeat her superb run 12 months ago.

Vinci’s semi-final victory over Serena Williams proved to be one of the major talking points of the 2015 edition of the event, as it ended the American star’s hopes of becoming only the fourth woman to complete a calendar Grand Slam.

The two women are in opposite halves of the draw so would only renew acquaintances in the latter stages of the event, with world number one Williams looking to achieve another historic feat, as victory would see her achieve a record-breaking seventh US Open triumph.

It would also see her set a new open era record of 23 Grand Slam singles titles, as she is currently tied with German Steffi Graf on 22, after beating Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the Wimbledon final in July.

Kerber missed out on the chance of replacing Williams as the world number one earlier this month, but she will still expect to provide a strong challenge to the home favourite, with the second seed leading the bottom half of the draw.

She will be second on Arthur Ashe tomorrow when she takes on Slovenia’s Polona Hercog.

Spain’s Rafael Nadal will get his men’s singles campaign underway afterwards when he faces Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, with the tie preceding a match between Poland's Jerzy Janowicz and defending champion Novak Djokovic.

The Serbian, who will arrive in New York bidding for a 13th Grand Slam title, has been out of sorts recently following shock defeats at Wimbledon and the Olympic tournament at Rio 2016 earlier this month.

Djokovic was beaten by American Sam Querrey in the third round at the All England Club before big-hitting Argentine Juan Martin del Potro ended his attempt at securing an Olympic gold medal at the first round stage.

Olympic gold medallist and Wimbledon champion Andy Murray of Britain, who clinched his first-ever Grand Slam title at the US Open in 2012, will face the Czech Republic's Lukas Rosol.

The second seed was involved in a feisty affair with Rosol at last year's Munich Open, during which Murray told his opponent that "nobody liked him" on the tour.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer will be a notable absentee at the competition having been ruled out with injury.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion has not missed one of the four major tournaments since 1999.