MADRID, Jan 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal will have a difficult road to travel to try to reach the final stages and defend his title of the Australian Open, the first “Grand Slam” of the season and in which he will already have his debut demanding against the British Jack. Draper, while Paula Badosa will start against American Catherine McNally.

The draw for the main draw of the tournament organized this Thursday was not excessively benevolent with that of Manacor, seeded first after the loss of Carlos Alcaraz and who will not go for the same role as the Serbian Novak Djokovic.

The Spaniard, double winner at Melbourne Park, will begin his career against the young Draper, left-handed like him, world number 40 and who will arrive with good feelings among the “big guys” since this Thursday he qualified for the semi-finals of the Adelaide 2 tournament.

“It will be amazing to play against him, he is a great champion. Obviously there are a lot of emotions when I think about facing him. Whatever happens, it will be a special occasion for me, I am still very young so it’s great to have that kind of experience and exposure to play against someone like Rafa on a track as big as that but I want to play very well and compete hard and do my best “, underlined Draper in declarations collected by the Site of the ATP after his victory against the Russian Karen Kachanov.

From there, the path could be easier until the round of 16 where the theoretical crossing is with the American Frances Tiafoe, sixteenth favorite and her executioner in this same round of the last United States Open, or the Canadian Dennis Shapovalov. In the quarter-finals, a possible repeat of the 2022 final against the Russian Daniil Medvedev, while in the semi-finals the highest ranked players are the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas and the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

For his part, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, nine times champion of the “Grand Slam” oceanic, will make his debut against the Spaniard Roberto Carballés and in the round of 16 he could have obstacles against the local Alex de Miñaur or the Asturian Pablo Carreño . In the quarter-finals he could have Nick Kyrgios, although he has to overcome rivals like young Dane Holger Rune or Russian Andrey Rublev, and in his draw the highest seed is Norwegian Casper Ruud.

As for the rest of the Spaniards, Carreño will start against the Argentinian Pedro Cachín, Roberto Bautista, against the Portuguese Joao Sousa, Alejandro Davidovich, against the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, Albert Ramos, against the American Maxime Cressy, Pedro Martínez, against the Pole Hubert Hurkacz, Bernabé Zapata, against the Russian Karen Kachanov, and Jaume Munar, against the Czech Dalibor Svrcina.

In contrast, in the women’s draw, Adelaide 2 semi-finalist and 11th seed Paula Badosa will make her Australian Open debut against American Catherine McNally and in the third round she could have the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.

The Catalan player is on the same side of the table as the great favorite, the Polish Iga Swiatek, world number one and semi-finalist last year, with whom she would face in a hypothetical quarter-final.

In addition, Garbiñe Muguruza, finalist in Melbourne in 2020 and who is not living her best moment of play and results, will start her career against the Belgian Elise Mertens, twenty-sixth favorite, and already in the third round she could have been a rival. very important like the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

Finally, Nuria Párrizas will also start against a top seed, the Brazilian Beatriza Haddad Maia (14), while the Spanish representation is completed by Cristina Bucsa, the only one to have passed the preliminary phase and who will face the German Eva Lys, also classified. from the previous