While any Grand Slam draw is never easy at least the Aussie men in the Australian Open singles have all managed to avoid facing seeds in the first round.
In his final Australian Open, Lleyton Hewitt drew compatriot James Duckworth. If Hewitt overcomes the first hurdle he’ll then have the likely daunting task of the eighth seed David Ferrer in the second round.
Bernard Tomic faces the experienced Denis Istomin from Uzbekistan and if he gets beyond that tricky opponent could match up against the likes of Simone Bolleli and Gilles Muller in the second and third rounds respectively
Nick Kyrgios is in Roger Federer’s quarter of the draw but, on paper has some relatively straight forward matchups in the opening rounds. First up is Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta. If all goes according to plan, Kyrgios’ first big task looks likely to be the tall Czech Thomas Berdych in the third round.
Sam Groth will do extremely well to get beyond the first week. He faces Adrian Mannarino from France in the first round. Win that and his next opponent is more than likely to be number two seed Andy Murray.
Australian Men first round matches:
Bernard Tomic vs Denis Istomin (Uzb)
Nick Kyrgios vs Pablo Carreno Busta (Esp)
Lleyton Hewitt vs James Duckworth
Sam Groth vs Adrian Mannarino (Fra)
John Millman vs Diego Schwartzman (Arg)
Omar Jasika vs Ilya Marchenko (Ukr)
Matthew Ebden vs Marcel Granollers (Esp)
Jordan Thompson vs Thomaz Bellucci (Bra)
On the women’s side, Samantha Stosur has drawn a qualifier in the opening round. She could then come up against Monica Puig who recently defeated her in Sydney. A possible match up with America’s Sloane Stephens in the third round then awaits.
Daria Gavrilova has a tough run. If she can overcome Lucie Hradecka in the opening round, she’s then up against the sixth seed Petra Kvitova.
Ajla Tomljanovic is in a similar boat to Gavrilova but has an even tougher opponent first up in the experienced Kateryna Bondarenko. Win that match and she can look forward to another tough slog against either Daniela Hantuchova or the 23rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Only two of the nine Aussie women will play seeds first up. Tammi Patterson will have the immense task of trying to get past Ana Ivanovic, while Maddison Inglis drew Ekatenna Makarova.
Australian Women first round matches:
Sam Stosur vs qualifier
Daria Gavrilova vs Lucie Hradecka (Cze)
Ajla Tomljanovic vs Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr)
Jarmila Wolfe vs qualifier
Tammi Patterson vs Ana Ivanovic (Ser)
Maddison Inglis vs Ekatenna Makarova (Rus)
Priscilla Hon vs Annika Beck (Ger)
Kimberly Birrell vs Karolina Pliskova (Cze)
Storm Sanders vs Alexandra Dulgheru (Rom)
The full Australian Open draws are available here.
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