Tennis-Djokovic faces Struff, Barty takes on Tsurenko at Australian Open (updated)

Sepc

16/01/2020 09:26

(writes through with detail, quotes)
    By Nick Mulvenney
    MELBOURNE, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Top seed and world number one
Ash Barty's bid to end the host nation's long wait for a
homegrown Australian Open champion will begin against Ukraine's
Lesia Tsurenko when the year's first Grand Slam gets under way
next week.
    Men's champion Novak Djokovic will begin his quest for an
eighth Australian Open title against Jan-Lennard Struff, while
the man he beat in last year's final, Rafa Nadal, will take the
top seeding into a contest against Bolivian Hugo Dellien.
    Serena Williams arrived in Australia with confidence high
after a title win in the warm-up tournament in Auckland as she
looks to finally match Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam
titles. 
    The 38-year-old eighth seed begins her bid for an eighth
Melbourne Park crown with a first-round tie against Russian
Anastasia Potapova.
    The players already in Melbourne awoke on Thursday to skies
clear of obvious signs of the bushfire smoke that choked the
city on Tuesday and Wednesday and disrupted qualifying.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N29L044   
    The draw, which took place in the evening in the arena named
in honour of Australian Court, threw up an intriguing clash for
Serena's 39-year-old sister Venus, who will face fellow American
Coco Gauff. 
    Gauff, 15, exploded onto the tennis map at Wimbledon last
year when, as a qualifier, she beat twice Australian Open
champion Venus on her main draw Grand Slam debut. 
    Japan's Naomi Osaka has enjoyed an even more stratospheric
rise over the last couple of seasons and won her second Grand
Slam crown in Australia last year.
    The 22-year-old will start her title defence against Czech
Marie Bouzkova, although she may not know it yet after vacating
the stadium court before the draw was revealed.
    "I don't even like seeing who I'm first playing until the
day before the match," the third seed said before making a hasty
exit.
    
    YOUNG GUNS
    Another former champion, Maria Sharapova, needed a wild card
to get into the tournament and could present quite a challenge
for 19th seed Donna Vekic.
    Djokovic won a record seventh Melbourne Park crown last year
to extend a still unbroken three-year dominance of the Grand
Slam titles by the trio of the Serbian, Nadal and Roger Federer.
    With Djokovic and Nadal now in their 30s and Federer, who
will open his quest for a 21st major title with a first-round
match against Steve Johnson, heading towards his 40s, all eyes
are on the young guns who might break their grip.
    "Daniil (Medvedev) is playing great tennis, he's definitely
in that small group of players who are getting closer to a Grand
Slam title," Djokovic said. 
    "Alongside him is Dominic Thiem, who is knocking on the
door, and (Stefanos) Tsitsipas, who won a big tournament at the
(ATP) World Finals. 
    "We are hoping this is not going to be the year they make
the breakthrough, but it's inevitable and that it makes it
exciting."
    Russian fourth seed Medvedev faces the toughest challenge of
the trio in the first round against American Frances Tiafoe, who
reached the Australian Open quarter-finals last year. 
    Austrian Thiem, seeded fifth, plays France's Adrian
Mannarino, while Greek sixth seed Tsitsipas takes on Italian
Salvatore Caruso.
    Nick Kyrgios looms as a tricky potential hurdle in Nadal and
Thiem's quarter of the draw but most Australian hopes of success
will rest on the shoulders of Barty, who is out to end the
42-year wait since Chris O'Neill won the title at Kooyong in
1978. 
    The Australian Open runs from Jan. 20 to Feb 2.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N29L2A8
    

 (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and
Alison Williams)
 ((Nick.Mulvenney@tr.com; +61 2 9321 8190;))