Reigning Australian Open men's
champion and world No.1 Novak Djokovic will begin his title defence against
Italy's Paolo Lorenzi.
The match-up is one of a number
of fascinating first-round clashes revealed during the tournament's Official
Draw at Melbourne Park on Friday morning.
Women's world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki
faces Australian hope Anastasia Rodionova, while 11th seed and defending
champion Kim Clijsters will meet a qualifier in her opening round match.
Of the top seeded men's players
Andy Murray [4] and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga [6] face arguably the toughest opening
tests, playing Ryan Harrison of the USA, and Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin
respectively.
Second seed Rafael Nadal and
third seed Roger Federer will both meet qualifiers in their first-round
matches.
Bernard Tomic, Australia's
highest-ranked men's player, faces a huge opening match as he meets 22nd seeded
player Fernando Verdasco of Spain.
In the women's draw Australia's
top-seeded player and sixth seed Samantha Stosur faces Sorana Cirstea of
Romania.
The women's draw has set up some
potentially huge match-ups in the quarter-finals, with China's Li Na and Kim
Clijsters on a collision course, while Sam Stosur will face world No.2 Petra
Kvitova should both make it through to the final eight.
Fourth seed Maria Sharapova faces
a tricky opening test against against Gisela Dulko, and finds herself in a
tough section of the women's draw that also includes Serena Williams, Vera
Zvonareva and Sabine Lisicki.
The twelfth-seeded Williams opens
her tournament against Tamira Paszek from Austria.
Kim Clijsters and Novak Djokovic
both attended this morning's draw.
No comments:
Post a Comment