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

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

The Spaniard, double winner at Melbourne Park, will begin his career in front of the young Draperleft-handed like him, world number 40 and that he will arrive with the “big guys” with good feelings 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 pitch as big as this.. But I want to play very well and compete hard and do my best,” Draper said in statements collected by the ATP website after her victory over Russia’s Karen Kachanov.

From there, the road could be easier until the round of 16 where the theoretical crossover is with the American Frances Tiafoe, sixteenth favorite and her executioner in this same round of the last United States Open, or the Canadian Denis 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 Serb Nine-time ocean ‘Grand Slam’ champion Novak Djokovic will make his debut against Spaniard Roberto Carballés and in the round of 16 he could have the local Alex de Miñaur or the Asturian Pablo Carreño as obstacles. 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, square will start against Argentinian Pedro Cachín, Roberto Bautistaagainst the Portuguese Joao Sousa, Alexander Davidovich, against the Kazakh Alexander Bublik, Albert Ramosagainst the American Maxime Cressy, Pedro Martinezahead of Pole Hubert Hurkacz, Bernabé Zapataagainst the Russian Karen Kachanov, and Jaume Munaragainst the Czech Dalibor Svrcina.

On the other hand, in the female box, Paula Badosa, semi-finalist in Adelaide 2 and seeded 11th, will make her Australian Open debut against American Catherine McNally and in the third round he could have the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.

The Catalan player goes to the same side of the table as the big favoritePoland’s Iga Swiatek, world number one and semi-finalist last year, with whom they would face off in a hypothetical quarter-final.

Moreover, Garbine Muguruzafinalist in Melbourne in 2020 and who is not living his best moment of play and results, will start her journey against the Belgian Elise MertensTwenty-sixth favorite, and already in the third round she could have a very important rival like the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

Ultimately, Nuria Parrizas She will also start against a top seed, the Brazilian Beatriza Haddad Maia (14), while the Spanish representation completes her. Cristina Buccathe only one who has passed the previous phase and who will face the German Eva Lys, also classified from the previous phase.