The Australian Open begins with a double Italy-England clash. The draw for the first Grand Slam of the season was drawn in Melbourne and Matteo Berrettini will be the turn of former world number one (and five-times finalist in Australia) Andy Murray – not the most banal of debuts… – while Jannik Sinner will have to deal with the revived Kyle Edmund, former top 15 on the rise after two years tormented by injuries. Berrettini, who happened in the lower half of the draw, presided over by Casper Ruud and where Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios also navigate, could find his last doubles partner from Davis, Fabio Fognini, who happened to be in the second round » Thanasi Kokkinakis. Below also the surprising Mattia Bellucci, the sixth blue in the draw, who will face the French Benjamin Bonzi.
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Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti (who finds the South African Lloyd Harris), and Lorenzo Sonego (drawn against the Portuguese Nuno Borges) are instead in the upper half, where Rafa Nadal, number 1 in the tournament after the forfeit of Carlos Alcaraz, already in the first round he will have to deal with a not very tender opponent, the young Englishman Jack Draper, 21 years old, n.40 Atp, one of the worst customers among those not included among the top seeds. In his half of the draw there are also Daniil Medvedev – who lost in the final against Rafa last year in Melbourne – and Frances Tiafoe, whom Nadal eliminated at the US Open last September.
In the women’s number 1 in the world and in the tournament they coincide in Iga Swiatek, and the same goes for number 2, Ons Jabeur. Six Italians in the competition, with these draws: Trevisan-Schmiedlova (qualified), Giorgi-Pavlyuchenkova, Bonzetti-Siegmund, Paolini-Samsonova (Russian but all-Italian by training), Stefanini (debuting in a Grand Slam)-Maria, and for close Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who on her return from Hobart will immediately face the reigning Wimbledon champion, the Kazakh Elena Rybakina