This year’s Australian Open men’s draw is unique in that the arguable two best players of all time are seeded ninth and 17th. Consequently, 17-time Slam winner Roger Federer was put in world No. 1 Andy Murray’s section, and his biggest rival, Rafael Nadal, wound up in world No. 3 Milos Raonic’s. The result of this? It looks like we’re in for an exciting fortnight.
The Superstars
Roger Federer [17]
Federer is set to play a qualifier in each of the first two rounds. It gets dicey for him from there, though, as he’d likely have to go through Tomas Berdych [10] and Kei Nishikori [5] in order to reach the final of Murray’s quarter.
Rafael Nadal [9]
Nadal has world No. 49 Florian Mayer in the first round, and probably former top-tenner Marcos Baghdatis in the second. Then he’d ostensibly have to beat Alexander Zverev [24] (That could be fun.), Gael Monfils [6] and Milos Raonic [3] just to get out of the quarter.
The Top Two
Andy Murray [1]
The first foreseeable threat to the newly crowned world No. 1 and Knight Bachelor‘s Australian Open campaign is in the third round, where he could play Sam Querrey [31], who knocked Djokovic out of Wimbledon in 2016. Other big players in his quarter include Berdych, Nishikori and Federer.
Novak Djokovic [2]
Djokovic will kick off his attempt at a seventh Australian Open title by taking on world No. 40 Fernando Verdasco, against whom he had to fight off five match points to make the final of Doha last week. As long as the Serbian can get through that, his path to the semis looks relatively benign, as he can’t face another top 10 opponent until the quarterfinal (Dominic Thiem [8]).
The Challengers
Milos Raonic [3]
Raonic’s early rounds will be ones to watch, with an opener against Dustin Brown, and a possible second-rounder versus Taylor Fritz (if the American teenager can manage to beat Gilles Muller for his first Grand Slam match win). Raonic also has the added challenge of having Nadal in his quarter.
Stan Wawrinka [4]
With as many Slams as Murray (three), Wawrinka’s chances at winning a fourth don’t look too bad. However, he does have a possible quarterfinal matchup against 2014 U.S. Open champ Marin Cilic [7]
Kei Nishikori [5]
Crammed into the already-crowded Murray-Federer quarter, this may not be Nishikori’s best shot at capturing his elusive first Slam. Not unless some big things unexpectedly break his way.
Complete #AusOpen men's draw: pic.twitter.com/RRwpErGEBF
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 13, 2017
Main draw action in Melbourne will commence at 11 a.m. local time on Monday.
