The 2024 of great tennis begins to get underway with the draw of the Australian Open draw.
At first glance, the program seems to smile at world number one Novak Djokovic who has triumphed 10 times in 18 appearances in Melbourne: on the road that would lead the Serbian champion to the final there are neither Zverev nor Medvedev, while the first real obstacle will be represented by the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas who in turn will start the first Slam of the year against the Italian Matteo Berrettini, while Jannik Sinner, number 4 ATP, will begin his journey against the Dutch Botic Van de Zandschulp, number 59, with whom he has never played.
Very challenging start among the women for Camila Giorgi opposed to Viktoria Azarenka. The draw of the South Tyrolean tennis player could include, according to the seeds, a clash in the third round against the Argentine Sebastian Baez, an eighth against Karen Khachanov (who could meet Frances Tiafoe in the third round on his way), a quarterfinal against Andrey Rublev. At the top of the men's draw drawn on the Italian night there is also Lorenzo Musetti (immediately against the French Benjamin Bonzi) who is in the same eighth as Berrettini and Matteo Arnaldi.
Lorenzo Sonego is also unlucky, as he will play against Daniel Evans and if he wins he could challenge Carlos Alcaraz in the second round. As for Berrettini, number 125 and out of the Top 100 after more than five years, he is in his seventh appearance with the 2022 semi-final (beaten in four sets by Nadal, who went on to win the title) as his best result. The draw puts him in front of the possibility of immediately experiencing the sensations of a great match in a big tournament, but he certainly cannot be called lucky. In fact, he has always lost in his four previous head-to-head meetings, at all levels, against Tsitsipas, the No. 7. As far as the women's draw is concerned, there are 6 Italians at the start: four have fallen into the upper part of the draw, the one presided over by the queen of world tennis Iga Swiatek: Errani and Bronzetti have instead been drawn in the lower part, that of the reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka. Going in order of the draw, the worst draw fell to Camila Giorgi.
The 32-year-old from Macerata, No. 55 WTA, will have to contend immediately with the Belarusian Viktoria Azarenka, No. 22 in the ranking and 18th seed: 2-2 the balance of the previous meetings with the 34-year-old from Minsk who has won quite clearly in the last two (the most recent in the WTA 1000 in Miami last year). For the Marche it is the twelfth appearance in the main draw where she has never managed to go beyond the third round reached in 2015, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023. Vika, in her thirteenth participation in the Slam Down Under, won her two Grand Slam trophies in Melbourne where she triumphed in 2012 and 2013. Last year she reached the semifinals, stopped by Kazakhstan's Rybakina. The Italian number one Jasmine Paolini, no.30 in the ranking and 26th favorite of the seeding, will instead make her debut against the Russian Diana Shnaider, no.95 WTA: between the 28-year-old from Castelnuovo di Garfagnana and the 19-year-old from Zigulevsk there are no precedents.
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