Opening clash will be no walk in the Park for Murray
ANDY Murray will make his return to the Australian Open with a tough first-round match against Roberto Bautista Agut.
The Spanish 22nd seed beat Novak Djokovic on his way to the title in Doha last week, while concerns about Murray’s fitness grew as he won only two games in a dispiriting practice match against world No.1 Djokovic yesterday.
Murray is playing at Melbourne Park for the first time since 2017 and a year on from hip surgery but looked laboured taking on his longtime rival under match conditions on Margaret Court Arena.
Trailing 6-1 4-1 and having held serve only once, Murray shook hands with Djokovic and his team to bring an end to the contest.
Kyle Edmund, back at the scene of his semifinal appearance 12 months ago, was also given a difficult opener against former top-10 stalwart Tomas Berdych, who is unseeded following injury.
Cameron Norrie goes into the tournament as Britain’s form man and faces a rematch with American Taylor Fritz, who he defeated to reach the semifinals of the ASB Classic in Auckland yesterday.
Defending champion Roger Federer takes on Denis Istomin and is in the same half of the draw as Rafael Nadal, who faces Australian James Duckworth.
Djokovic, who like Federer is bidding
for a record seventh title in Melbourne, will play a qualifier.
Federer has won the title the last two years and has an extra carrot having gone into the season on 99 career singles titles. One more here would see him follow Jimmy Connors as the only man in the Open era to hit three figures, as well as taking him past Djokovic and Roy Emerson at Melbourne Park. He said: “Ninety-nine is already
an incredible number. I could live happily ever after on 99. But being so close, I’ll give it a go. If it would happen defending this title, I would gladly accept it. Reaching 100 would be truly very special for me.”
In the women’s draw, Johanna Konta begins her campaign against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, who she lost to in Brisbane last week.
Konta is in a loaded top quarter of the draw that also includes world No.1 Simona Halep – who faces a rematch with her US Open conqueror Kaia Kanepi – Serena and Venus Williams, Garbine Mugurza and Karolina Pliskova.
Serena, who is seeded 16th, faces fellow mother Tatjana Maria, while defending champion Caroline Wozniacki takes on Belgian Alison van Uytvanck.
British No.2 Heather Watson takes on 31st seed Petra Martic from Croatia, while Katie Boulter, playing in her first slam main draw outside of Wimbledon, meets experienced Russian Ekaterina Makarova.
Meanwhile, Dan Evans and Harriet Dart will fly the flag for Britain in the final round of qualifying.
Evans had to dig deep to battle past Austrian Jurij Rodionov 6-4 3-6 7-5. The 28-year-old from Birmingham is looking to compete in the main draw of a slam for the first time since a first-round loss at the French Open in 2017, shortly before his positive test for cocaine was revealed.
Dart’s only previous appearance in the main draw of a slam came at Wimbledon last summer, where she took a set off Karolina Pliskova.
The 22-year-old Londoner made a great start to the season by winning four matches at the Brisbane International last week and continued that form with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-1 victory over China’s Xu Shilin.
James Ward lost 6-4 3-6 6-3 to Argentina’s Marco Trungelliti.
I could live happily ever after on 99. But being so close, I’ll give it a go. Reaching 100 would be truly very special for me. Roger Federer