Amidst all the chaos of the Djokovic Vaccinegate controversy and the rising cases of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 Virus, the much-awaited first-round draws are out. A lot of exciting matches await the fans of the sport who were left much disappointed in recent times due to the Australian Open being miffed with a lot of unwanted issues.
Who Plays who in the Australian Open?
There are a lot of exciting matchups in Round 1, guaranteed to give the fans a run for their money. Firstly talking about the most exciting draws in the Women’s category the two most anticipated matches are:
- Paula Badosa playing Ajla Tomljanovic; and
- Storm Sanders playing Aryna Sabalenka (Rank 2)
- Ashleigh Barty playing Naomi Osaka
The #AO2022 men’s draw is set, with @rafaelnadal and @djokernole on the same side of the draw.#AusOpen
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 13, 2022
Talking about the men’s matchups the most anticipated match-ups there clearly are:
- Rafael Nadal starting against unseeded American Marcos Giron.
- Andy Murray playing Nikoloz Basilashvili
- Stefanos Tsitsipas playing Mikael Ymer; and
- Novak Djokovic playing his fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic
Predicted Fixtures
Taking into consideration the rankings and the form of the current players it is not very difficult to anticipate the future Semi and the Quarter Final fixtures. In the Women’s category, fans are anticipated for Naomi Osaka and Ashleigh Barty fixture. There is potential for Rafael Nadal facing Novak Djokovic in an electric semi-final. The head to head between the two giants of the sport stands currently at 28v30 respectively, thus making it clear that there’s not much to differentiate between them. The king of clay, Nadal obviously has bested Djokovic on multiple occasions at a clay surface however Djokovic beats Nadal in almost everything else.
We can just hope that there are no more hiccups to the much-awaited event in light of recent controversies, may the best athlete win.