The Australian Open draw ceremony was held on Thursday afternoon and the result was a rough road to the title for both Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.
Although the good news for Alcaraz and Djokovic is that they are in the opposite half from Jannik Sinner, a rematch of their thrilling Paris Olympics gold-medal showdown could come as early as the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park. That’s right; Alcaraz and Djokovic find themselves in the same quarter of the bracket. Alcaraz could face either Jack Draper or Sebastian Korda in the fourth round, while Djokovic will potentially run into Tomas Machac in the third round and Grigor Dimitrov in the last 16.
Sinner has a mostly favorable draw aside from the fourth round, where he could go up against either Holger Rune or Hubert Hurkacz.
If the top eight seeds all take care of business, quarterfinal matchups would be Sinner vs. Alex de Minaur, Taylor Fritz vs. Daniil Medvedev, Alcaraz vs. Djokovic, and Alexander Zverev vs. Casper Ruud.
First-round matches to watch include Hurkacz vs. Tallon Griekspoor, De Minaur vs. Botic van de Zandschulp, Fritz vs. Jenson Brooksby, Dimitrov vs. Fabio Fognini, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs. Gael Monfils, Ben Shelton vs. Brandon Nakashima, Matteo Berrettini vs. Cameron Norrie, Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Alex Michelsen, Francisco Cerundolo vs. Alexander Bublik, Lorenzo Musetti vs. Matteo Arnaldi, Denis Shapovalov vs. Roberto Bautista Agut, Lorenzo Sonego vs. Stan Wawrinka, and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Jerry Shang.
Check out the entire Australian Open men’s singles draw on the tournament website
who ya got?