Australian tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis has been forced to withdraw from the Australian Open due to injury.
The news put a dampener on the announcement of the singles draw for both the men and women.
Number two seed Serena Williams received one of the toughest draws on the women’s side with a first round match-up against Belinda Bencic as well as drawing Lucie Safarova in her section.
It was good news for 16-year-old Australian Destanee Aiava who will play a qualifier first up. If she gets through that her second round opponent is likely to be 29th seed Monica Puig.
The out of form Samantha Stosur faces a tough first round match-up against Heather Watson.
On the men’s side Novak Djokovic also has a less than easy start against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco.
Australian Nick Kyrgios was seeded 14th and faces Portugal’s Gastao Elias first up, while Bernard Tomic has drawn the experienced Thomas Bellucci.
17-year-old wildcard entrant Alex De Minaur will experience his first grand slam match against another experienced campaigner in Austrian Gerald Melzer.
Women’s Draw 1st round matches (Top 10 Seeded players)
(1) Angelique Kerber vs Lesia Tsurenko
(2) Serena Williams vs Belinda Bencic
(3) Agnieszka Radwanska vs Tsvetana Pironkova
(4) Simona Halep vs Shelby Rogers
(5) Karolina Pliskova vs Sara Sorribes Tormo
(6) Dominika Cibulkova vs Denisa Allertova
(7) Garbine Murguruza vs Marina Erakovic
(8) Svetlana Kuznetsova vs Marian Duque-Marino
(9) Johana Konta vs Kristen Flipkens
(10) Carla Suarez Navarro vs Jana Cepelova
Australian women 1st Round matches
Ash Barty vs Annika Beck
Destanee Aiava vs Qualifer
Jaimee Fourlis vs Anna Tatishvili
Daria Gavrilova vs Naomi Broady
Samantha Stosur vs Heather Watson
Arina Rodionova vs Caroline Wozniacki
Lizette Cabrera vs Fonna Vekic
Men’s Draw 1st round matches (Top 10 Seeded players)
(1) Andy Murray vs Illya Marchenko
(2) Novak Djokovic vs Fernando Verdasco
(3) Milos Raonic vs Dustin Brown
(4) Stan Wawrinka vs Martin Klizan
(5) Kei Nishikori vs Andrey Kuznetsov
(6) Gael Monfils vs Jiri Vasely
(7) Marin Cilic vs Jerzy Janowicz
(8) Dominic Thiem vs Jan-Lennard Struff
(9) Rafael Nadal vs Florian Mayer
(10) Tomas Berdych vs Qualifier
Australian men 1st round matches
Alex De Minaur vs Gerald Melzer
James Duckworth vs Paolo Lorenzi
Sam Groth vs Steve Darcis
Jordan Thompson vs Joao Sousa
Andrew Whittington vs Adam Pavlasek
Chris O’Connell vs Grigor Dimitrov
Nick Kyrgios vs Gastao Elias
Bernard Tomic vs Thomaz Bellucci
Omar Jasika vs David Ferrer
The full single draws are available here.
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