Australian Open: Murray, Nadal and Raducanu discover first round ties
Late last night the draw for the men’s and women’s singles took place in Melbourne for the Australian Open Grand Slam, which begins on Sunday evening.
A number of the world’s best players, and the British contingent, learned of their potential root to Grand Slam glory. Here are the key takeaways from the draw.
Australian Open: Men’s draw
No1 seed Rafael Nadal will face British hopeful Jack Draper in the top quarter of the men’s draw – which also features Daniil Medvedev, Sebastian Korda and Hubert Hurkacz.
Second seed Casper Ruud will face off against unseeded Tomas Machac in a quarter of the draw that features Matteo Berrettini versus Andy Murray and Taylor Fritz versus Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Stefanos Tsitsipas plays Quentin Halys with a potential matchup against Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarter-finals – Cameron Norrie begins his bid for a first Grand Slam against wildcard Luca van Assche.
Home hero Nick Kyrgios begins against Roman Safiullin but could face a difficult route to the semi-finals of Holger Rune, Andrey Rublev and Novak Djokovic.
Dan Evans will face Facundo Bagnis while Kyle Edmund will play Jannik Sinner.
Australian Open: Women’s draw
World No1 Iga Swiatek begins her title charge against Jule Niemeier in a quarter of the draw that could see her face Coco Gauff in the quarter-finals.
British no1 Emma Raducanu has been passed fit to begin the tournament next week and she’ll do so against Tamara Korpatsch with a second round tie against American Gauff likely.
One of tennis’ current stars Ons Jabeur will begin her Grand Slam season against Tamara Zidansek in a quarter of the draw that could see the African sensation face Aryna Sabalenka in the last eight.
American Jessica Pegula and Jacqueline Carleton with her next two matches potentially against what are known as ‘lucky losers’.
Caroline Garcia begins against a qualifier and arguably faces the easiest route to the quarters, with 16th seed Anett Kontaveit her highest ranked opponent on her way to the last eight.
Harriet Dart faces 32-ranked Jil Teichmann.
View the full draw here.