If Rafael Nadal needs to defend his Australian Open title and prolong his lead within the general Grand Slam rely, he’ll should do it the onerous method.
Nadal was dealt a brutal hand when the draw ceremony was held on Thursday afternoon at Melbourne Park. The highest-seeded Spaniard has to open towards rising British star Jack Draper, who at present finds himself within the Adelaide semifinals. It doesn’t get any simpler after that, as Brandon Nakashima is a possible second-round opponent and a rematch with Frances Tiafoe is feasible within the final 16. Nadal and Tiafoe went head-to-head within the 2022 U.S. Open fourth spherical, with the American pulling off an upset on his strategy to the semis. Daniil Medvedev can also be within the prime quarter of the bracket together with Hubert Hurkacz, Denis Shapovalov, and up to date Adelaide runner-up Sebastian Korda.
As if that isn’t sufficient, the highest half of the draw additionally consists of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and Jannik Sinner. Tsitsipas and Sinner are on a collision course for the fourth spherical, whereas Auger-Aliassime faces fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil proper off the bat and will meet Stan Wawrinka within the spherical of 64 and Cameron Norrie within the spherical of 16.
On the opposite facet of the bracket, Djokovic moved into top-four seeding due to world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz’s withdrawal and he’s already reaping the advantages. Djokovic is in 1 / 4 with Andrey Rublev, Holger Rune, and Nick Kyrgios, however the 35-year-old Serb can solely face a kind of opponents within the quarterfinals. Rublev has to kick off his fortnight towards Dominic Thiem earlier than presumably assembly Rune or Kyrgios within the fourth spherical. Djokovic’s solely potential roadblock previous to the final eight is Aussie velocity demon Alex de Minaur, though nothing about de Minaur’s previous historical past suggests he can rating a monumental upset on a Grand Slam stage.
Attainable semifinal opponents for Djokovic are Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz. This a dream draw for Fritz, as everybody needs to be in Ruud’s part and not one of the different seeds close by–not simply Ruud–are scary. Alexander Zverev is rusty, Matteo Berrettini has struggled with bodily problems with his personal, Diego Schwartzman could not even be capable of play, and Roberto Bautista Agut has plunged to twenty sixth within the rankings.
Along with Nadal vs. Draper and Rublev vs. Thiem, first-round matchups to observe are Berrettini vs. Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov vs. Aslan Karatsev, Thanasi Kokkinakis vs. Fabio Fognini, Alexander Bublik vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Borna Coric vs. Jiri Lehecka, and Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Ilya Ivashka.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and in addition maintains his personal tennis web site, The Grandstand. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter at @Dimonator.
