Raonic avoids tough route Down Under
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Six- time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic drew a difficult firstround opponent in Fernando Verdasco and Roger Federer’s fall in the rankings complicated his chances at Melbourne Park after he ended up in same quarter as topranked Andy Murray, No. 5 Kei Nishikori and No. 10 Tomas Berdych.
The official draw for the season’s first major was held Friday and delivered an awkward opponent for second-seeded Djokovic. Verdasco had an upset win over fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the first round here last year and had five match points before losing to Djokovic in the semifinals at Doha last week.
Third-ranked Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., will open against Germany’s Dustin Brown. Raonic has won the only previous meeting between the players in the opening round of the 2016 U.S. Open.
Six-time women’s champion Serena Williams, aiming for an Openera record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, drew a challenging first-round opponent in Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic, seeded 12th last year. She also had No. 9 Johanna Konta, No. 17 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 6 Dominika Cibulkova in her quarter.
Top-ranked Angelique Kerber, who beat Williams in the final here last year to win her first Grand Slam title and also won the U.S. Open to finish the year at No. 1, is set to play Lesia Tsurenko in the first round. Tsurenko withdrew from her semifinal later Friday in Hobart, citing a viral problem that forced her to pull out of the Brisbane tournament the previous week. She said she hoped to be OK for the Australian Open.
Eugenie Bouchard of Montreal, coming off a semifinal appearance at the Sydney Open, faces American Louisa Chirico. It will be their first meeting.
Federer had surgery on his left knee last February after reaching the Australian Open semifinals and after ending his record run of 65 consecutive majors by skipping the French Open, spent the second half of 2016 on the sidelines recovering after a semifinal exit at Wimbledon.