After a 24-hour delay to the draw ceremony due to a positive case of COVID-19 in Melbourne, the world’s top players have found out who they will be playing in the Australian Open next week.
Novak Djokovic will start his bid for a historic ninth title against France’s Jeremy Chardy who he has had a dominant 13-0 head-to-head records against. In his section the world No.1 will not play a player ranked higher than 14th seed Milos Raonic during the first four rounds. Should everything go accordingly, he will play either Frances Tiafoe or Stefano Travaglia in the second round followed by a potential clash with Taylor Fritz in the last 32. Djokovic is on a collision path to play Raonic in the fourth round but also lurking in that section is former champion Stan Wawrinka who reached the quarter-finals last year.
So far in his career Djokovic has won 75 main draw matches at the Grand Slam and hasn’t lost in the first round since 2006. Describing the Rod Laver Arena as his home, the Serbian has won more trophies at the tournament than any other Grand Slam.
Heading the other half of the draw will be Rafael Nadal who is seeking to win the Melbourne crown for the first time since 2009 and only the second time in his career. The Spaniard will start his campaign against Laslo Djere whom he has never played on the Tour before. Further on in the draw, his second round meeting will be the winner of the all-qualifier clash between Viktor Troicki and Michael Mmoh. Later in the opening week Nadal could play Dan Evans followed by either Fabio Fognini or Alex de Minaur in the fourth round.
Heading into Melbourne there are questions over Nadal’s current fitness after he pulled out of a series of matches at the ATP Cup this week due to a stiff back. Although he has said he is getting better every day. Should the 34-year-old triumph in Melbourne he would overtake Roger Federer to become the most decorated Grand Slam champion in the history of men’s tennis.
Dominic Thiem, who is the reigning US Open champion, will begin against Mikhail Kukushkin. The Austrian is in the same quarter as Djokovic and could play him in the semi-finals. It was Djokovic, who he lost to in the final last year.
Elsewhere Daniil Medvedev will take on Canada’s Vasek Pospisil, Alexander Zverev faces Marcos Giron and Stefanos Tsitsipas will lock horns with French veteran Gilles Simon.
Besides the top seeds, there is also a series of intriguing first round matches to wet the appetite of tennis fans. A battle of the rising stars will occur between Jannik Sinner and Denis Shapovalov. Ninth seed Matteo Berrettini could have his work cut out when he plays the fast-serving and two-time Grand Slam finalist Kevin Anderson. Meanwhile, there will also be an intriguing clash between Marin Cilic and Grigor Dimitrov.
The main draw will start on Monday.
Order of play
Top half
Bottom half
