Australian Open: Potential Gauff-Osaka, Shelton-Djokovic matches lead draw
Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A first-round meeting between Iga Swiatek and Sofia Kenin and potential Tommy Paul-Carlos Alcaraz, Ben Shelton-Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff-Naomi Osaka matches highlight the 2024 Australian Open draw.
Tournament organizers announced the matchups during the draw ceremony Thursday. The tournament will be held from Jan. 14 to 28 in Melbourne.
Match coverage, which will air on ESPN platforms, will start Saturday in the United States, but it will be Sunday in Australia because of a 16-hour difference between Australian Eastern Daylight Time and U.S. Eastern Standard Time.
The men's and women's singles champions will receive about $2.1 million for winning the 15-day Grand Slam tournament. A total of 256 players, 128 each in the men's and women's singles circuits -- and doubles competitors -- will compete for a combined prize purse of about $58 million.
Swiatek, the top-ranked and top-seeded women's player, will take on Kenin to start her quest for a maiden title on the iconic blue courts of Melbourne Park. The Polish star beat the unseeded American in straight sets in the 2020 French Open final, their only previous meeting.
No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will play a qualifier in her first-round match. No. 3 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan will face unseeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
No. 4 Coco Gauff of the United States will battle unseeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia. No. 5 Jessica Pegula of the United States will take on another qualifier.
Gauff could meet Naomi Osaka as early as the fourth round. The unseeded Osaka will face No. 16 Carolina Garcia of France in her first Grand Slam match since a pregnancy-related tennis hiatus. The Japanese tennis star is a two-time tournament champion.
Gauff, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, can't face Swiatek, Pegula or Rybakina until the final, but could meet Maria Sakkari of Greece in the quarterfinals. Sabalenka, No. 6 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and No. 9 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic are among the top players she would meet in the semifinals.
Sabalenka, the defending champion, beat Rybakina for the 2023 title.
On the men's side, Djokovic will start to defend his 2023 title with a first-round meeting against a qualifier. The Serbian is a heavy favorite to win an 11th Australian Open singles title, increasing his Grand Slam record haul to 25.
Djokovic could meet Great Britain's Andy Murray as early as the third round. He could battle No. 16 Ben Shelton of the United States in the fourth round.
No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, the 2023 runner-up, and No. 12 Taylor Fritz of the United States are among the top players Djokovic or Shelton could meet in the quarterfinals.
No. 4 Jannik Sinner of Italy, No. 17 Frances Tiafoe of the United States, No. 10 Alex de Minaur of Australia and No. 5 Andrey Rublev of Russia are among the top players who could meet the previously mentioned men's competitors in the semifinals.
No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, the Wimbledon 2023 champion, will play unseeded Richard Gasquet of France in the first round. The Spaniard could face No. 14 Tommy Paul of the United States in the fourth round, if both players win their first three matches.
No. 6 Alexander Zverev of Germany and No. 11 Casper Ruud of Norway are among the top players Alcaraz or Paul could meet in the quarterfinals.
No. 3 Daniil Medvedev of Russia, No. 8 Holger Rune of Denmark and No. 9 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland are the top-ranked players Alcaraz, Zverev, Ruud or Paul could see in the semifinals.
