Open Australia: OK draw for the Azzurri, Nadal risks

2023-01-12T17:38:30.630Z

First slam 2023 kicks off on Monday, 12 Italians on the field (ANSA) Defending champion Rafa Nadal is the favorite of the men's draw, in the absence of world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, but starts immediately uphill, while Novak Djokovic is the most awaited in the 2023 edition of the Australian Open, the number 111 in the history of the tournament , who will also see six Azzurri at the start from Monday with a great desire to shine already in the first slam of the season

Defending champion Rafa Nadal is the favorite of the men's draw, in the absence of world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, but starts immediately uphill, while Novak Djokovic is the most awaited in the 2023 edition of the Australian Open, the number 111 in the history of the tournament , who will also see six Azzurri at the start from Monday with a great desire to shine already in the first slam of the season.

There are also six Italians registered in the women's draw, dominated in the predictions by the Polish n.1 in the world Iga Swiatek.

The draw was quite favorable for the Azzurri: in the first round a double Italian-British challenge stands out, Matteo Berrettini-Andy Murray and Jannik Sinner-Kyle Edmund, which shouldn't worry either the Roman or the South Tyrolean, while Lorenzo Musetti will face the South African Lloyd Harris, Lorenzo Sonego, Portuguese Nuno Borges and veteran Fabio Fognini will face Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, probably the most difficult obstacle of the lot.

Mattia Bellucci, coming from qualifying, will have to deal with the French Benjamin Bonzi.

Sonego, Musetti and Sinner are in the upper part of the draw, the one presided over by Nadal, and the last two could find themselves facing the third round in the part of the draw that also sees Stefanos Tsitsipas, Daniil Medvedev and Denis Shapovalov threatening.

Nadal has a difficult debut with the British rampant Scott Draper, and going forward in the tournament he would find Medvedev, the other protagonist of the 2022 final, in the quarterfinals. In the lower part of the draw are Berrettini, Fognini and Bellucci.

The bogeyman is Djokovic, nine-time winner of the tournament and determined to take his tenth - tying the record for slam wins with Nadal, at 22 -, who will start by facing the Spanish Roberto Carballes Baena, but there are also Daniil Rublev and the idol home Nick Kyrgios, who still dreams of conquering the tournament.

The Serbian and the Australian, finalists at Wimbledon 2022, could find themselves in the quarterfinals.

Berrettini, who reached the semi-finals last year, should have it easy with Murray and Italy hope they can face veteran Fognini in the next round.

if he manages to eliminate Kokkinakis.

In the women's field, Martina Trevisan will make her debut against a player coming from the qualifications, the Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Lucia Bronzetti will face the German Laura Siegemund, compatriot of Tatjana Maria who will be the opponent of Lucrezia Stefanini.

Both Jasmine Paolini (Liudmila Samsonova) and Camila Giorgi (Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova) will have a Russian rival.

Finally, Elisabetta Cocciaretto will face the Kazakh Elena Rybakina.