Australian Open draw: the luck of the Argentines and the meeting with a tennis legend

The best placed Argentinian in the ATP ranking Francisco Cerúndolo (21st) will debut in Australian Open Tennis against a rival who emerged from the previous phase e Tomas Etcheverry (30th) against the Scottish veteran Andy Murray36 years old, after having drawn today the first Grand Slam of the year, which will begin next Monday in Melbourne.

Murray, winner of three Slams and two gold medals in London 2012 and Rio 2016, is a specialist for Australia, where he reached the final in five editions: 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Etcheverry is 1-1 all-time against the former world No. 1. The Scot won the first duel at Indian Wells 2023, after more than three hours of battle, and the Argentine took revenge against which he considers one of his references in Basel, last October.

The number one in the world, the Serbian Novak Djokovic he will make his debut against a qualified opponent, the Spaniard Carlos AlcarazSecond in the ranking are the Frenchman Richard Gasquet (37 years old) and the Russian Daniel Medvededthird, he will make his debut against the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp.

Djokovic, winner of 24 Grand Slams and 10 Australian Opens, will be the first time in his career that he will not have his historic rivals, Nadal and the Swiss Roger Federer, in the final draw of the Australian Open.

Since then the Argentines have not limited themselves to Cerúndolo and Etcheverry Sebastiano Baez (28th) will play the first round against the American JJ Wolfthe same one that eliminated the Argentine in 2023 Diego Schwartzmannwhich this time was excluded from the ranking.

While Pedro Cachin (48th) will debut against a qualified rival, Federico Coria (49th) will face the Chinese Zhizhen ZhangAND Facundo Diaz Acosta (93rd) will do it against the American Taylor Fritz (12).

As for the possibilities that will present themselves to the candidates at Melbourne Park, in the quarterfinals Djokovic could play against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (7th), the Italian Jannik Sinner (4th) against the Russian Andrey Rublev (5th), the Russian Medvedev against the Dane Holger Rune (8th) and Alcaraz against the German Alexander Zverev (6th).

In the women’s draw, the draw predicted a difficult start for the world number one, the Pole Iga Swiatekwho will play against the American Sofia Kenin.

Likewise, on her return to a Slam after becoming a mother last July, the Japanese Naomi Osakaformer world number one and two-time winner in Melbourne, she will face the French Caroline Garcia.

Argentinian side waiting for what will happen Giulia Riera in his last qualifying match, Nadia Podoroska He already knows that he will have to face the Slovenian in the first round Tamara Zidansekmatch scheduled for Saturday 13th at night.