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1/18/09 4:44 AM | Ricky Dimon
Players in the top half of the draw will have an extra day of rest before getting things started on Tuesday. That's when Rafael Nadal will begin his quest to move through a tricky but far from taxing section.
Rafael Nadal surely would have preferred to avoid Andy Murray until the Australian Open finals, but if there is one player in men's tennis who doesn't get caught looking ahead, it's Nadal. For now, he'll worry about his own section of the draw. The world No. 1 can worry about a potential semifinal showdown with Murray if and when it comes to that.
Nadal's quarter is not extremely difficult, but he has plenty with which to deal. The Spaniard should have no trouble advancing through the first two rounds (against Christophe Rochus and then either Florent Serra or Roko Karanusic). His nearest seeded player and potential third-round opponent is Dmitry Tursunov, who has done nothing since the 2008 U.S. Open Series but is still talented, owning a big power game. Richard Gasquet, Fernando Gonzalez, and Lleyton Hewitt are potential fourth-round opponents for the Spaniard. Any of them would be tricky, but an upset of Nadal for one of those three would be nothing less than shocking.
Things could get a bit more interesting for the five-time Grand Slam champion in the quarterfinals, where the most the likeliest potential opponents are Gilles Simon, who stunned Nadal last fall in Madrid, and another Frenchman in Gael Monfils, who recently denied Nadal in Doha, Qatar.
In terms of the matchups that we are already certain will happen (the first-round encounters), Gonzalez vs. Hewitt is definitely the pick of this quarter, not to mention the entire tournament. Hewitt still captures the imagination of Aussie fans as their highest-ranked player at No. 74 in the world and their best hope to do damage Down Under. The two-time Grand Slam champion limped through 2008 with injuries, but he is off to a solid start this season after reaching the quarterfinals in Sydney. Gonzalez, the No. 13 seed and 2007 Aussie Open runner-up, is an extremely dangerous opponent, but this will be his first match of the season.
Nadal should be able to get through this section, but watch out if he faces Simon or Monfils in the quarters. Even if that doesn't result in an upset, those two Frenchman have games that wear people down, and in this case it could leave Nadal without enough left in the tank heading into a potential semifinal against Murray.
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