IT was a case of happy new year for Tennis Australia after only two of 10 men in the Australian Open field drew seeds and the country’s two seeded women – Sam Stosur and Casey Dellacqua – avoided tricky first-round assignments.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Nick Kyrgios has the benefit of an opening-round match-up against Argentine Federico Delbonis, but may meet big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the second round.
Bernard Tomic confronts Germany’s Tobias Kampe. A potential second-round clash with another German, No.22 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, may be perfectly timed after Tomic, 22, defeated him at the Sydney International.
Evergreen Australian Lleyton Hewitt is the solitary local man in the top half of the draw and has drawn Chinese wildcard Ze Zhang.
Thanasis Kokkinakis was one Australian who lucked out, drawn to meet No.11 seed Ernest Gulbis. Wildcard John Millman will face No.26 seed Leonardo Mayer.
No.29 seed Dellacqua confronts Austrian Yvonne Meusburger first up, but should the West Australian reach the third round a daunting match-up against in-form Czech Petra Kvitova is on the cards.
Australian tennis officials had every reason to smile after the draw.
‘‘I think no question there’s more opportunities,’’ tournament director Craig Tiley said.
‘‘(But) every match is a tough match though, and there are a lot of tough first-round matches for the Aussies.
‘‘On the men’s side, there’s only one player in the top half and the rest in the bottom half.
‘‘We’re more evenly spread on the women’s side, but there are more opportunities than we’ve enjoyed over the last several years for our Australian players.’’
Six of the Australian men are stacked in one quarter and should Kokkinakas somehow stun Gulbis, local TV broadcasters will be sent into a frenzy with the chance of an an all-Australian second-round match against Groth.
Marinko Matosevic has a qualifier while wildcard playoff winner Jordan Thompson and wildcard recipient Luke Saville meet Portugal’s Joao Sousa and Israel’s Dudi Sela respectively.
Should Hewitt safely progress past the first round, his next opponent could be French No.25 seed Julien Benneteau or German Benjamin Becker.
In the women’s draw, five-time champion and world No.1 Serena Williams has drawn Belgian’s Alison Van Uytvanck in what shapes as massive a mismatch.
The American superstar could confront Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, Dominika Cibulkova or even the unseeded Victoria Azarenka in the second week for a spot in the semis.
Former champion Azarenka meets American Sloane Stephens in the pick of the women’s first-round matches. And it won’t get any easier for the winner of that contest with Wozniacki looming in the second round.
