Four-time defending US Open champion Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, lead the men’s singles field for the 2008 US Open Tennis Championships, which will also feature former US Open champions Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Marat Safin. All top 100 men, representing 29 different countries, received direct entry into the US Open.

The 2008 US Open will be played August 25 – September 7 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Both the men’s and women’s US Open singles champions will earn $1.5 million with the ability to earn an additional $1 million in bonus prize money (for a total $2.5 million potential payout) based on their performances in the Olympus US Open Series. The US Open Men’s Singles Championship is presented by Lexus.

Leading the entry list is world No. 1 Federer of Switzerland, who won his fourth consecutive US Open singles title last year and became the first man to win the Olympus US Open Series and US Open titles in the same season. Bill Tilden was the last men to win five consecutive U.S. titles during a stretch of six straight from 1920-25.

World No. 2 Nadal enters the US Open with the chance to become just the fourth man to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year. Rod Laver (1962, 1969) and Don Budge (1938) accomplished the feat while completing the Grand Slam and Tony Trabert won all three events in 1955.

Following Federer and Nadal on the entry list are No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the reigning Australian Open champion; No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia; No. 5 David Ferrer of Spain; No. 6 Andy Roddick of Austin, Texas; No. 7 David Nalbandian of Argentina; No. 8 James Blake of Fairfield, Conn.; No. 9 Andy Murray of Great Britain; and No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

In all, there are nine entrants who have won Grand Slam singles titles in their careers, including: 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain; 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson of Sweden; and 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya of Spain.

Other American men who received direct entry into this year’s tournament include No. 41 Mardy Fish of Tampa, Fla.; No. 45 Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks, Calif.; No. 64 Robby Ginepri of Kennesaw, Ga.; No. 88 Donald Young of Atlanta; No. 90 Bobby Reynolds of Acworth, Ga.; No. 94 Vince Spadea of Boca Raton, Fla.; and No. 96 John Isner of Tampa, Fla.

Sergio Roitman of Argentina, ranked No. 103, was the 104th and last player accepted directly into the men’s field of 128 (Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia used a protected ranking to gain entry). Sixteen more players will gain entry through the US Open Qualifying Tournament, August 19-22, while the remaining eight spots are wild cards awarded by the USTA.

The July 14 edition of the ATP rankings was used to determine the US Open main draw entry list. Seeds will be based on the August 18 rankings.

The 2008 US Open will mark the culmination of the Olympus US Open Series, the six-week summer tennis season linking all major ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments in North America to the US Open. The US Open is the highest attended annual sporting event in the world. More than 75 million viewers watched the 2007 US Open on CBS Sports and USA Network, and international broadcasts reached more than 180 countries. In 2007, Roger Federer earned the largest payout in tennis history -- $2.4 million -- for winning both the US Open and Olympus US Open Series titles. In the women’s singles final, Justine Henin defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova to capture her second career US Open title.

The 2008 US Open will be held Monday, August 25 through Sunday, September 7. Tickets for the 2008 US Open can be purchased four ways: 1) at USOpen.org; 2) by calling Ticketmaster at 1-866-OPEN-TIX; 3) at all Ticketmaster outlets; or 4) at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center box office. American Express is the Official Card of the US Open.