The Australian Open draw ceremony took place on Friday afternoon in Melbourne, where Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal avoided serious early danger despite being saddled with unusually low seeds. Federer is in Andy Murray’s quarter, while Nadal is on the other side of the bracket in a section with Milos Raonic.
Seeded 17th and ninth, respectively, Federer and Nadal had a one-in-eight chance of facing each other as early as the third round. Instead, No. 10 seed Tomas Berdych–not Nadal–is the one who is on a third-round collision course with the 17-time Grand Slam champion. Federer will start against a qualifier and will meet another qualifier if he wins his opener. A tough top quarter of the bracket also includes Murray, Kei Nishikori, Lucas Pouille, and John Isner.
Nadal also has a potential blockbuster third-rounder on his hands, even though it cannot come against Federer. Fast-rising German Alexander Zverev, who almost took down the Spaniard at the Indian Wells Masters this past season, is Nadal’s nearest seed. Both players, however, have work to do in advance of a possible rematch. After kicking things off against Florian Mayer, Nadal would run into the Marcos Baghdatis-Florian Mayer winner. Zverev is beginning his fortnight against recent Auckland quarterfinalist Robin Haase. The third quarter of the draw also features Raonic, Gael Monfils, Roberto Bautista Agut, and David Ferrer.
After losing in the Australian Open first round last year, Nadal certainly won’t be looking ahead in the draw. And guess who his 2016 conqueror, Fernando Verdasco, has right off the bat this time around? That would be none other than six-time champion Novak Djokovic. Verdasco and Djokovic just squared off last week in Doha, where the Spaniard blew five match points before losing 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-3.
Aside from his opener, Djokovic has an outstanding draw in by far the weakest of the four sections. Only potential fourth-round adversary Grigor Dimitrov, who triumphed in Brisbane last weekend, is in particularly strong form.
The host nation will be especially intrigued by the bracket’s second quarter, which is home to both Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic. Both players are physical question markets at the moment, but the draw is a manageable one for both players if they somehow arrive in Melbourne at 100 percent. Kyrgios could face well-documented rival Stan Wawrinka in the fourth round.
Australian Open draw on the tournament website
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discuss
Couple of nits to pick:
a) Rafa cannot play F. Mayer in the first round and then play the “winner of Mayer-Baghdatis” in the 2nd round.
b) Federer isn’t even a poll choice to win Murray’s quarter?? (I don’t think he will but, hey, #respect?)
Imo A. Zverev will be a tougher 3rd round opponent for Rafa than Fed would be.
For Roger it could’ve been worse Berdych mentally can’t play the top guys and nishikori is injured. Plus Roger is capable of beating Murray on hard courts so if he somehow gets past Sir Andy he has a good shot at reaching the final. Sounds overly optimistic I know but it’s just good to see Roger back
very good for Rog
Could have been worse lol ?
It couldn’t have been easier more like it almost as if by design.
Guaranteed qualifiers in first two rounds followed by Berdych and an injured nishi.
He owns Murray who he could meet in quarters assuming murray makes it.
And Nole supposed randomly drawn against verdasco first round who just happened to have five match points against him last week.
Seems AO wants to see ol Roger go deep as predicted.
Hawkstradamus is hereby giving Roger the nod to find a way to win his 18th.
The danger for Murray is that Federer could play like he has nothing to lose. And as witnessed in the Doha final, I still think he doesn’t have enough when of the other 3 fires on all cylinders.
Wouldn’t say Novak has an easy draw; both Verdasco and Dimitrov are problematic if he does not bring his A game. Overall the draws seem rather even for all of the big 4.
Whereas Rafa gets zverev, monfils, raonic and Nole.
If that holds, Rafa probably won’t get that far.
Andy and Nole also with tough draws.
Rigged draws are everywhere!
OK I take back the part about draws being even. That is a brute.
I am not expecting much from Rafa here. He has a tough draw. One match at a time and see how far he can go.
I don’t think Fed will win this. I still think that Novak and Murray are the favorites. Novak has a really good draw. The question will be if a dark horse emerges and manages to go deep or even get to the final. And I am not referring to Fed! I just don’t see it happening for him here.
The Grandstand Aussie Open racket bracket pool http://www.tourneytopia.com/RacquetBracketAussieOpenATP/TennGrandAussie/Pre-Register.aspx
Phew about Roger and Rafa. That would’ve sucked for the tournament to have one guaranteed to lose by the third round. What a draw for Roger. Qualifier qualifier Berdych Nishikori. And meanwhile Djoker gets Verdasco. Tough draw for the Djoker early.
I still have Djokovic winning it all over Murray in the final. I do think Fed gets to the quarters. I think matches with Berdych and possibly Kei will be tough ones, and lack of match play catches up with Fed against Andy. Nole has a very tough draw, but I think he will summon some of his best tennis and find a way to win it again. He just loves playing there. It should be a great tournament!
I think Rafa can go far here at the AO. I think he can beat anyone in his (or Raonic’s) quarter as long as Rafa plays well.
I think Djoko has a tough draw in Verdasco and Dimi; I think Thiem isn’t a threat on the HCs ( he did poorly at Brisbane and Sydney). Goffin may be in the QF in that quarter and Goffin isn’t playing badly recently.
Fed may lose to Berdych, who knows? Murray should come through in that quarter Fed or no Fed.
Stan has Cilic, Kygrios and the rest but Stan like the AO and most likely he will come through that quarter.
BTW, why is Rafa always in Djoko’s half of the draw? It happens so often lately it’s ridiculous!
If Rafa sustains his attitude of “playing not to lose” rather than playing for the win he will be vulnerable as ever and will have trouble winning his matches irrelevant of who his opponent might be. My expectations are low after seeing Rafa lose to Milos where he was able to play one great set after which his game fell apart and him reverting to his old defensive ineffective style of play…
Rafa’s draw is tough but it’s not the opponent who I fear from…it’s Rafa and only Rafa who can make a disaster out of it..,
Fed has a dream draw, not that I am surprised! Nole as well has an easy draw. That Doha match vs Verdasco is overrated, Novak will beat him in straights…
Wawa has a rather tough draw and if he goes deep he may as well end up winning the whole thing..,
tough draw for rafa. wish he could swap it with fed’s which is easy peasy. zverev in the 3rd round will be a big test. hoping carlos can inspire him to hang tough. vamos carlos!!
sick of him being in nole’s half but the biggest threat are the early rounds…
I agree about the early rounds being the biggest threat. Rafa has not been able to get through those. So I am not looking ahead at this point. There are too many questions regarding Rafa right now. I picked him in my bracket last year to get to the final and I am not about yet make that mistake again!
I do agree that it is not about his opponents. This is about Rafa and the state of his game and his confidence. He hasn’t played much in slams and best of five matches are a whole other thing,
Novak should get through his draw. He always plays well here, I do not think Fed will get past Murray, if he even gets that far. Good draws are not going to be enough now.
Stan has played very well here and brings it in the slams. I can see him gettIng through his part of the draw.
I am interested to see how Raonic does now that he is in the top four. Will he be there at the business end of this slam?
Early upsets are going to be something to watch for here. Also, can any of the young guys get to the latter stages?
i don’t think we can expect too much of rafa in his first slam coming back after injury. but if he is to have a real shot at winning rg then it’s hard not to feel like he needs to shake his bogey over going out in the early rounds of slams and put in some good matches. that’s what i’m hoping for. even though it’s very early days i am also hoping to see some of carlos’s influence coming through and rafa showing some fight, not imploding through nerves.
are you going to do the atp bracket nny? very hard to pick against rafa ie his going out early…
Amy,
I have been trying to decide. You hit on one of the reasons. It is quite hard to pick against Rafa and I also have no idea how far he can go. I honestly do not know what to expect. It’s anyone’s guess. I just think it’s too soon for him to turn it around, but one can only hope.
I think a good result for Rafa would be frt No to the fourth round. He would get an Che’s and wins under his belt and gain rankings points. Getting to the quarterfinals would be a great result.
I think we still have time to get into the bracket. Every time I go back in to the ATP bracket I get confused as to how it all works.
My previous post got garbled with autocorrect. I meant to say that Rafa gettIng to the fourth round would be a good result. He would get match play and wins under his belt and also rankings points.
i wouldnt like to do a draw where i had to pick against him nny. agree that fourth round would be a good showing and quarters excellent as he hasn’t got to the quarters for ages. that would set him up for rg.
neither he or fed can win given the amount of time they’ve had away imo. they simply don’t have enough match play.
if he wins a few matches and shows fight and plays well then that’s fine with me.
IMO Roger could lose to Berdych, whos beaten him a couple of times in GS, and seems to relish taking on Roger, and is not intimidated like he is when facing Novak or Andy ….
Hello! it’s here the WTA TC/tournytopia Aussie Open Bracket Pool
http://www.tourneytopia.com/RacquetBracketAussieOpenWTA/jalep3/default.aspx
Everyone Welcome 🙂
Hi RC yep cheers, done it 😉
Thanks alison. Happy you are in! I’m late for work.
Good luck with all your picks!
Where is the TennGrand Tourneytopia draw pool?????????????????????????
#BEL18VE
Which half of the draw will play first – Murray’s or Djoko’s?
Murray’s (because Fed is in it).
Was announced last night.
Rafa starts Tuesday.
Pretty sure Fed will have mostly evening matches to go with his two guaranteed qualifiers in the first two rounds to conserve energy.
Ok thanks.
First round will be interesting. Three top guys could go out. Watch out for J. Melzer, F. Mayer and Verdasco in that order.
Delusional other than verdasco (very doubtful still).
Fed will win losing less than 12 games.