Melbourne (Australia), Feb 5 (EFE) .- Spanish Rafael Nadal, second seeded, will debut at the Australian Open against Serbian Laslo Djere, while Serbian and current champion Novak Djokovic (1) will debut with the veteran French player Jeremy Chardy.
For his part, the Austrian and finalist in the last edition, Dominic Thiem, will play his first game against the Kazakh Michail Kukushkin, while the other great candidate for the title, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, will start his way in Melbourne Park against the Canadian Vasek Pospisil .
After stumbling in the last edition in the quarterfinals, the Mallorcan will return to what will be his sixteenth Australian Open with his sights set on breaking the greatest of records and surpassing the Swiss Roger Federer, who has twenty, as a tennis player with greatest number of Grand Slam titles.
The Manacor man could not prepare his first date against Djere, a rival he never faced, as he would have liked after suffering some discomfort that prevented him from playing the first two matches of the ATP Cup.
The draw did not have the characteristic brilliance of all the years and was held only with the presence of the tournament director Craig Tiley and provided an affordable first two rounds for Nadal who in the second round would meet the winner of the match between the also Serbian Viktor Troicki and the American Michael Mmoh, both from the previous one.
Later, in the quarter-final round, they could face off against Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (6) or Italian Matteo Berrettini (9).
On the other hand, there are players of the stature of Russians Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev; as well as the aforementioned Tsitsipas and Berrettini.
Djokovic, a great favorite for the title for having lifted the crown on the banks of the Yarra on eight occasions, coincided in the same part of the table with the reigning US Open champion, Thiem, the German Alexander Zverev and the Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
Regarding the main casualties of the 2021 edition, the Swiss Roger Federer announced at the beginning of the year that he would not be fully recovered from his knee and, therefore, he would not be present for the first date of the year after 21 participations consecutive and six titles harvested.
Nor did Scottish Andy Murray, a five-time finalist, travel to Australia this year after confirming his positive for covid-19.
The second highest Spanish hope, Roberto Bautista Agut (12) will start his career in Melbourne against Moldovan Radu Albot; while the third Spanish favorite, Pablo Carreño (15), will complete his debut with the Japanese Kei Nishikori.
Regarding the rest of the Spanish present in the final draw, Albert Ramos will debut against the American Taylor Fritz (27), Pedro Martínez with the Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, Pablo Andújar with the French from the qualifying phase Quentin Halys and Feliciano López with the guest player local Li Tu.
For his part, the young Carlos Alcaraz will debut in Grand Slam competition with the Dutch Botic Van De Zandschulp, classified from the previous one; while Mario Vilella will begin his career with the Checho who also agreed from the previous Tomas Machac.
Possible round of 16:
Novak Djokovic (1, SER) – Milos Raonic (CAN, 14)
Gael Monfils (10, FRA) – Alexander Zverev (6, ALE)
Dominic Thiem (3, AUS) – Pablo Carreño (15, ESP)
Denis Shapovalov (11, CAN) – Diego Schwartzman (8, ARG)
Andrey Rublev (7, RUS) – Roberto Bautista (12, ESP)
David Goffin (13, BEL) – Daniil Medvedev (4, RUS)
Stefanos Tsitsipas (5, GRE) – Matteo Berrettini (9, ITA)
Fabio Fognini (16, ITA) – Rafael Nadal (2, ESP).
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