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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