From January 17 to 31, the 2022 tennis season will see its first big meeting with the Djokovic Case'”>Australian Open in Melbourne. The Djokovic affair has taken a lot of media attention in recent days. However, it’s time to play with the announcement of the men’s table.
Analysis of the favorites table
After more than an hour and a half late, the men’s table finally fell. For the moment, Novak Djokovic is still in contention to defend his title. Moreover his first week is hypothetically simple with in a supposed and probable order: Kecmanović, Paul, Sonego and Monfils or Garin in eighths. In contrast, the defending vice-champion Daniil Medvedev has a more winding road with Laaksonen, Nick Kyrgios in the second round, followed by Struff or Humbert or Van de Zandschulp then Schwartzman in the third round. The 3rd in the world, Alexander Zverev has a table more like Djokovic with Altmaier in the first round. Then comes Millman, Harris and Shapovalov or Opelka in the eighth. Finally for Rafael Nadal, Marcos Giron is elected in the first round. Then, Kokkinakis, who we have seen very fit lately, is behind. Khachanov should show himself in the third round, before giving way to Aslan Karatsev or Hubert Hurkacz.
Interesting first laps
Not to mention the favorites, some first rounds are already very exciting with two Franco-French duels, a server clash, a fight between two young hopefuls, then several between rough players and strategists:
- Norrie – Korda
- Moutet – Pouille
- Humbert – Gasquet
- Opelka – Anderson
- Musetti – De Minaur
- Murray – Basilashvili
- Evans – Goffin
- Van de Zandchulp – Struff
These matches will be one to watch very closely from the start of the tournament. They will set the tone for the first Grand Slam of the year at the same time as the releases of the favorites mentioned above.
Potential shifts
As with every tournament, we imagine the perfect paths for the first eight in the world if they all manage to qualify for the quarter-finals. Of course, that is still assumed and the eight are unlikely to qualify.
- Djokovic – Berrettini
- Zverev – Nadal
- Tsitsipás – Ruud
- Medvedev – Rublev
To view the full table:
#AusOpen Men’s Singles draw
Super tough 2nd quarter…
Very open 3rd quarter! pic.twitter.com/L7qKMTgKWI
– José Morgado (@josemorgado) January 13, 2022
This first Grand Slam of the year promises to be interesting with several high-ranking confrontations. However, the Novak Djokovic case is still not over. If the Australian immigration minister decides to expel the world number 1 from the territory, the organization would be forced to raise each seed by one place and integrate a Lucky Loser into seed number 33. In anyway, in a few days we will be talking only about tennis and that is the main point.
Photo credit: Christopher Clarey / New-York Times
Auguste Amar
