The draw for the Australian Open was particularly difficult for the French.
A few days before the start of this Australian Open, the draw for the first Grand Slam of the year was made this Thursday morning. For perhaps his last year on the circuit and when he was ejected from the top 100, Richard Gasquet will have the difficult task of facing the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in the first round.
As for the other French, the new French No. 1 Adrian Mannarino, who entered the top 20 at 35, will face another thirty-year-old, the Swiss Stan Wawrinka. Ugo Humbert, just behind him in the world rankings (21st), will be pitted against a player from qualifying. Arthur Fils (35th) and Luca Van Assche (87th) will start respectively against the Czech Jiry Vesely, ex-35th in the world, and an Australian guest, James Duckworth. Gaël Monfils (75th), potentially on the road to Djokovic in the third round, is opposed to the German Yannick Hanfmann (49th). For the rest, we will have to achieve exploits against top seeds with Lestienne – Davidovich Fokina, Barrère – Paul and Bonzi – Musetti
Among the women, Caroline Garcia inherits a complicated first round with the Japanese Naomi Osaka, back on the circuit for a few weeks after maternity, she who won the Australian Open twice. Varvara Gracheva (39th) will have a first round within her reach against Yanina Wickmayer (68th), Clara Burel (52nd) will be opposed to the Serbian Aleksandra Krunic (690th) before challenging Jessica Pegula (5th), as for Alizé Cornet who, in In the event of a victory against a qualifier, she could face Magda Linette, seeded n°20. Diane Parry and Océane Dodin will respectively face seeded Chinese Xinyu Wang (n°30) and Lin Zhu (n°29).
Djokovic spared, Tsitsipas in the tough?
Djokovic will start slowly against a player from qualifying, like the Russian Medvedev in the other half of the table. The Italian Jannik Sinner will have a tricky first round on his side against the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp (59th). The outgoing finalist, world No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas, was not spoiled by the draw since the Greek inherited the powerful Italian Matteo Berrettin and could meet Djokovic in the quarterfinals in the final.