The AO Draw Is Out!

Here

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/draws/ms/index.html


I did not get much except that Murray is on Nole's side and I guess Nadal v Fed semi.

Nole plays Harrison first round and Tomic v Verdasco.

BTW - I got this information thanks to an old trustworthy poster here!

Edited - with link

I got it from twitter! Courtesy of Stu Fraser.

I was watching the draw live. It's on the Aus Open website.

Live http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/video/live.quals.html

Murray draws Harrison in the first round, tough draw for him.

Murray has Tsonga in the quarters and Novak in the semis... Ouch!

Mad for Chelsea wrote:Murray draws Harrison in the first round, tough draw for him.

If he comes out firing he will be fine. In a way it will be good for him to be challenged from the start.

A dead easy draw for Nadal once again.

Djokovic has Ferrer, Tipsarevic, and Roddick (easy too).

Murray has Tsonga, Simon (Tough)

Federer has Fish, Delpo (very tough)

Nadal has Almagro , Berdych

A potential Federer-Delpo 4th round match could be very interesting. Also, Murray has the French Corp. :lol:

Berdych, Raonic and Tsonga all out of Kooyong with a shoulder injury, stomach bug and exhaustion respectively. Casts doubts over all of them for next week.

Link to the draw...

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/draws/ms/index.html

Novak-Rafa final I think

I'll go for Delpo v Novak.

Fed-Murray.

Murray v. Fed (I can live in hope)!

Tats intersting, everybody got the semi of fedal, after FO 2005 they might again meet in the semi's if they both go till there.

Del Po is a tricky opponent, Federer better watch out.

I can see Tsonga overpowering Murray in the quarters, he will need a lot of mental strength to beat Tsonga on form.

The draw looks okay for Fed, I was pretty certain that Fed would be drawn on Nadal's side of the draw and Murray on the other side, so no surprises there. I have a feeling that either Federer or Nadal won't make the semi-final but if they do, that will be brilliant, first hard court slam meeting since the Aussie Open Final 2009!

sooo excited! ahhhhh

Delpo lost from Baghdatis today, 7;5, 6;4, he's a tall lost puppy.

A partisan crowd cheered loudly every time Cypriot Baghdatis won a point and top seed Del Potro spoke to official Fergus Murphy for three minutes at the end of the first set.

Afterwards, Del Potro seemed clueless as to why Baghdatis receives such noisy support in Australia, home to a large Greek Cypriot population, but played down his complaint.

"I don't know where Cyprus is, if it's close to Australia or not," Del Potro said. "But many guys come to here to see his game and follow his tennis.

Nole plays Harrison first round
______________

Murray plays Harrison, a slight mistake there that you could edit Tenez, but thanks for the info.

Djokovic possibles
R1 Lorenzi
R2 Giraldo
R3 Mahut/Starace/Stepanek
R4 Raonic/Hewitt/Stebe/Haase/Roddick
QF Ferrer/Tipsarevic/Youzhny/Gasquet
SF Murray/Tsonga
F Federer/Nadal

Murray
R1 Harrison
R2 Malisse
R3 Llodra/Gulbis/Gimeno-Traver/Bogmolov
R4 Troicki/Monfils
QF Simon/Nishikori/Tsonga
SF Djokovic
F Federer/Nadal

Federer
R1 Qualifier
Q2 Prodon/Beck
R3 Melzer/Karlovic
R4 Tomic/Verdasco/Querrey/Dolgopolov
QF Fish/Del Potro
SF Nadal/Berdych
F Djokovic/Murray

Nadal
R1 Qualifier
R2 Haas
R3 Ljubicic/Young
R4 Davydenko/Lopez/Nalbandian/Isner
QF Berdych/Warwinka/Almagro
SF Federer/Fish/Del Potro
F Djokovic/Murray

I think Murray's is the hardest. The others are on cruise control for the first three rounds. R4 is where the tastiest matchups come in. Surprise potential there. Federer-Dolgopolov would be entertaining if it happens.

Pick of the first round is the obvious TV choice of home favourite Tomic against Verdasco. I can just picture Verdasco's annoyance with the crowd already. Llodra-Gulbis could be entertaining, that's the one I'd pay for a ticket for.

Also Stebe-Hewitt and Haase-Roddick. One of those to be a late night 5 setter.

The most dangerous QF opponents for the top 4 are Tsonga and Del Potro in my view. They got drawn against Murray and Fed respectively.

Djokovic has it easier with Ferrer in his quarter. Although Ferrer is a very solid player, he doesn't seem to have the extra bit to knock out the top players when they're fit and playing well.

Nadal needs to come through a section with Ljubicic, Davydenko, Nalbandian and Isner, and after that Berdych would be waiting in the QF. Not exactly easy, but indeed he should be able to come through.

Don't see any issues he for Murray - assuming he's on form

We of course are all thinking that Tsonga will actually reach his seeded place and if he does, then we'll have another terrific performance against one of the Top 4 and the usual loss. Berdy or even Fish would have been more of an issue, simply because they tend to get under Andy's skin

And if it's Simon in the last 16, then he couldn't have chosen a better opponent

Harrison will be interesting, but I think Andy intends showing his best to the players who might eventually replace them

TopoftheChops wrote:I can see Tsonga overpowering Murray in the quarters, he will need a lot of mental strength to beat Tsonga on form.

It's been said six times previously and actually came true once

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Players/Head-To-Head.aspx?pId=MC10&oId=T786

Typical. Computer at work is pants and isn't letting me view the draw!!

However, I fancy Roddick to be the first round big name casualty. Fancy Hasse to take him out!

Henman Bill wrote:Pick of the first round is the obvious TV choice of home favourite Tomic against Verdasco. I can just picture Verdasco's annoyance with the crowd already. Llodra-Gulbis could be entertaining, that's the one I'd pay for a ticket for.

Also Stebe-Hewitt and Haase-Roddick. One of those to be a late night 5 setter.

Another good R1 match could be Nieminen vs Nalbandian. Nieminen just reached the final in Sydney both in singles and doubles, plus he had to win 3 qualifying matches first to get into the Sydney main draw! He might feel a little tired once he gets to Melbourne

What do people think about Nalbandian? Can his relatively poor results in 2011 still be explained by injuries and lack of fitness, or has he lost it forever? Any chance he could still bring back the magic?

Henman Bill wrote:Djokovic possibles
R1 Lorenzi
R2 Giraldo
R3 Mahut/Starace/Stepanek
R4 Raonic/Hewitt/Stebe/Haase/Roddick
QF Ferrer/Tipsarevic/Youzhny/Gasquet
SF Murray/Tsonga
F Federer/Nadal

Murray
R1 Harrison
R2 Malisse
R3 Llodra/Gulbis/Gimeno-Traver/Bogmolov
R4 Troicki/Monfils
QF Simon/Nishikori/Tsonga
SF Djokovic
F Federer/Nadal

Federer
R1 Qualifier
Q2 Prodon/Beck
R3 Melzer/Karlovic
R4 Tomic/Verdasco/Querrey/Dolgopolov
QF Fish/Del Potro
SF Nadal/Berdych
F Djokovic/Murray

Nadal
R1 Qualifier
R2 Haas
R3 Ljubicic/Young
R4 Davydenko/Lopez/Nalbandian/Isner
QF Berdych/Warwinka/Almagro
SF Federer/Fish/Del Potro
F Djokovic/Murray

I think Murray's is the hardest. The others are on cruise control for the first three rounds. R4 is where the tastiest matchups come in. Surprise potential there. Federer-Dolgopolov would be entertaining if it happens.

From a first look, I think Djokovic will be quite happy - doesn't look too tough until the semi final, unless Raonic lives up to the hype.

Murray - Monfils looks in good form, but Andy seems to be a tough match-up for him; not the easiest R4 opponent though. Tsonga similarly has already shown form in 2012 and should be a challenge in the QF. Then again it's a slam, so you shoud have to beat some good players.

Fed - Gets a potentially tougher R3 opponent in Melzer, and R4 against Tomic or Dolgo could also be challenging. If Del P can get back to his best, then that's a tough QF, but he's struggled to get all the way back to his best. On paper looks probably the toughest run to the SF of the top 4, but as we've seen before there can be a big difference between 'on paper' and how things transpire.

Nadal - Perhaps the least tough QF opponent, but looks to have a few banana skins in the earlier rounds. OK, Haas isn't the player he was, but if he can roll back the years he has the potential to cause Rafa some problems. Similarly, Looby could have a good day on serve and be difficult, then Davy and Nalby are two players who have a style that has beaten Rafa in the past (i.e. by taking the ball early and cutting down his time). Don't expect Rafa to lose any of these if he's fully fit, but can certainly see a couple of tests.

As we know the draw is extremely important not only for your chance to get through the later stages but for the way you get through it. Having long battles in earlier rounds affects severely teh chances of doing well in the later stages.

It's going to be interesting.

You would have to fancy the top 4 to come through given their consistency but like Tenez says, being taken into an unexpected 5 setter in early rounds could prove a big hurdle later in the tournament.

Remember what Tsona did on these courts in 2008 and seem to recall him getting to semis couple of years ago or maybe 2009 ? I think Murray has a nice draw until Tsonga if they should get that far, then it gets tough.

Del Potro is very hard to predict, he can be quite up and down but great on his day. I would fancy him to edge fish if they met.

Ferrer most likely to meet djokovic but I would give Tipsarevic in recent form a good chance of upsetting him and he would come out all guns blazing against countryman Djokovic if they met, they had a tough match in US Open before Tipsy retired.

Nadal could have a few tricky matches but should make it through. I would love to see Nalbandian go deep in another slam before he retires, what a talent that guy is! I just love how early he takes the ball and the angles he finds are amazing at times. A rare breed but has not fulfilled his potential, injuries have not helped.

Have not seen much of Berdych in recent months but could always be a dark horse, would question his ability to win back to back matches against top 4, certainly capable of upsetting one though.

At least - and at last - Fed and Rafa are in the same half of the draw which will quieten the conspiracy theorists who pointed out that it was incredible that the two (when not first and second in the world) were so regularly kept apart by the draw.
Some fairly tasty match-ups, but - fitness apart - it would be a brave person to look beyond the big four for the semis. Having said that, there's probably more chance of an upset to the big four this time than for a while as it's fairly difficult to know just how fit they all are.
Only thing I would say to anyone banking on Gulbis. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.

SFP - It's beautiful weather here in London. Warm and sunny! You are missing the best days of the indian summer.

Hope it's not raining in Barbados.

Tenez
Actually I aint gone yet. Flying out next Friday so will see some of the AO but may be not much after that as I think my hotel is not over-blessed TV-wise. Other compensations, though - sun, and, sea and.....rum.

SoCal's draw-fix whinging finally got the job done, then lol.

Sometimes you see a player have a tough 5 setter and they are not able to reproduce anything like it the next round. The top 4 are on a different level to that though, physically and mentally. They can have a tough early round match and I think 90% get it out of their system within a couple of rounds. Also with the semis perhaps on Thursday and Friday we don't have the tiredness issue ahead of the final either.