The 2011 Australian Open men’s main draw singles matches will begin on Monday 17 January at 11am local time in Melbourne, Australia. There are 128 main draw spots divided up between 16 Qualifiers (Q), 8 Wild Cards (WC) and 104 Direct Acceptances.
The seeded players do not receive a BYE in the 1st round of a Grand Slam event. To win the title a player must win 7 best of 5 set matches in a row. Being seeded means that you the earliest round in the event that you can meet another seeded player is 3rd round in which only 32 players remain. This year is the 99th year that this tournament is being played and the 106th year since the Australian Open originally began in 1905.
If you have any questions or need any further details about the AUSTRALIAN OPEN or TENNIS please leave a comment right below this article.
OnCourt Advantage will be adding the names into the 3rd round match ups for seeds and the full singles draw as it occurs from 10am on Friday 14 January, right below this. The men’s draw will follow the women’s draw. OnCourt Advantage will add the names of the 16 qualifiers into the full draw below once they are known. At 5pm Melbourne time on Sunday 16 January these qualifiers will be allocated a spot in the 1st round and entered in the full below draw straight away.
The draw for the seeded players IF they all win through to the 3rd round is:
- Rafael NADAL (1) versus (31) Feliciano LOPEZ
- John ISNER (20) v (15) Marin CILIC
- Mikhail YOUZHNY (10) v (22) Michael LLODRA
- David NALBANDIAN (27) v (7) David FERRER
- Robin SODERLING (4) v (30) Tomaz BELLUCCI
- Ernests GULBIS (24) v (13) Jo-Wilfried TSONGA
- Jurgen MELZER (11) v (21) Marcos BAGHDATIS
- Guillermo GARCIA-LOPEZ (32) v (5) Andy MURRAY
Which are the match ups for the top half of the draw. In the bottom half of the draw, the players who are seeded to meet are:
- Tomas BERDYCH (6) v (28) Ricahrd GASQUET
- Nikolay DAVYDENKO (23) v (9) Fernando VERDASCO
- Nicolas ALMAGRO (14) v (17) Ivan LJUBICIC
- Viktor TROICKI (29) v (3) Novak DJOKOVIC
- Andy RODDICK (8) v (26) Juan MONACO
- Stanislas WAWRINKA (19) v (12) Gael MONFILS
- Mardy FISH (16) v (18) Sam QUERREY
- Albert MONTANES (25) v (2) Roger FEDERER
The highlighted names above represent the possible quarter final match-ups according to seedings i.e. Nadal v Ferrer, Soderling v Murray, Berdych v Djokovic and Roddick v Federer. The possible semi final match ups according to seedings are Nadal v Soderling and Djokovic v Federer. “-AUS” added to the end of any name in the draw below, means that player represents Australia.
The 2011 Australian Open men’s singles draw for the 1st round is:
- (1) Rafael NADAL v Marcos DANIEL
- (Q) Ryan SWEETING v Daniel GIMENO-TRAVER
- (WC) Bernard TOMIC-AUS v Jeremy CHARDY
- Alejandro FALLA v (31) Feliciano LOPEZ
- (20) John ISNER v Florent SERRA
- Radek STEPANEK v (Q) Denis GREMELMAYR
- Rui MACHADO v Santiago GIRALDO
- (Q) Donald YOUNG v (15) Marin CILIC
- (10) Mikhail YOUZHNY v Marsel ILHAN
- (Q) Blaz KAVCIC v Kevin ANDERSON
- (Q) Milos RAONIC v Bjorn PHAU
- Juan Ignacio CHELA v (22) Michael LLODRA
- (27) David NALBANDIAN v Lleyton HEWITT-AUS
- Ricardo BERANKIS v (WC) Marinko MATOSEVIC-AUS
- Michael RUSSELL v (WC) Matthew EBDEN-AUS
- Jarkko NIEMINEN v (7) David FERRER
- (4) Robin SODERLING v Potito STARACE
- (Q) Gilles MULLER v (Q) Simon STADLER
- Denis ISTOMEN v (Q) Jan HERNYCH
- Ricardo MELLO v (30) Tomaz BELLUCCI
- (24) Ernests GULBIS v Benjamin BECKER
- Alexandr DOLGOPOLOV v Mikhail KUKUSHKIN
- Andreas SEPPI v Arnaud CLEMENT
- Philipp PETZSCHNER v (13) Jo-Wilfried TSONGA
- (11) Jurgen MELZER v (Q) Vincent MILLOT
- (WC) Carsten BALL-AUS v Pere RIBA
- Dudi SELA v Juan Martin DEL POTRO
- (Q) Grega ZEMLJA v (21) Marcos BAGHDATIS
- (32) Guillermo GARCIA-LOPEZ v Michael BERRER
- Eduardo SCHWANK v Leonardo MAYER
- Illya MARCHENKO v Ruben RAMIREZ HIDALGO
- Karol BECK v (5) Andy MURRAY
The bottom half of the draw is:
- (6) Tomas BERDYCH v (Q) Marco CRUGNOLA
- Philipp KOHLSCHREIBER v Tobias KAMKE
- (WC) Ryan HARRISON v Adrian MANNARINO
- (Q) Frank DANCEVIC v (28) Richard GASQUET
- (23) Nikolay DAVYDENKO v Florian MAYER
- Fabio FOGNINI v Kei NISHIKORI
- Mischa ZVEREV v Janko TIPSAREVIC
- Rainer SCHUETTLER v (9) Fernando VERDASCO
- (14) Nicolas ALMAGRO v (Q) Stephane ROBERT
- Igor ANDREEV v Filippo VOLANDRI
- (Q) Flavio CIPOLLA v (WC) Benoit PAIRE
- (WC) Peter LUCZAK-AUS v (17) Ivan LJUBICIC
- (29) Viktor TROICKI v Dmitry TURSUNOV
- Brian DABUL v (Q) Nicolas MAHUT
- Ivo KARLOVIC v Ivan DODIG
- Marcel GRANOLLERS v (3) Novak DJOKOVIC
- (8) Andy RODDICK v Jan HAJEK
- Michal PRZYSIEZNY v Igor KUNITSYN
- Carlos BERLOCQ v Robin HAASE
- Julien BENNETEAU v (26) Juan MONACO
- (19) Stanislas WAWRINKA v Teymuraz GABASHVILI
- (Q) Grigor DIMITROV v Andrey GOLUBEV
- Frederico GIL v Pablo CUEVAS
- Thiemo DE BAKKER v (12) Gael MONFILS
- (16) Mardy FISH v Victor HANESCU
- Tommy ROBREDO v (WC) Somdev DEVVARMAN
- Sergiy STAKHOVSKY v Daniel BRANDS
- Lukasz KUBOT v (18) Sam QUERREY
- (25) Albert MONTANES v Dustin BROWN
- Xavier MALISSE v Pablo ANDUJAR
- LU Yen-Hsun v Gilles SIMON
- Lukas LACKO v (2) Roger FEDERER
The Seeds: In a 128-player sized draw there are 32 seeded players. This means that all of the 32 seeds are separated in the draw so that play 2 rounds against lower ranked opponents who are unseeded, before they can meet another seed in the 3rd round.
The Wild Cards: The 2 remaining wild cards that have not yet been awarded will all be announced before this Tuesday 11 January. Thus far, the wild cards have been awarded to Marinko Matosevic-AUS, Ryan Harrison-USA, Benoit Paire-FRA, Peter Luczak-AUS, Matthew Ebden-AUS and Somdev Devaarman-IND. As soon as the last 2 wild cards are announced OCA will add them right here -> The final 2 wild cards went to Bernard Tomic-AUS and Carsten Ball-AUS.
The Qualifiers: The 128-player qualifying tournament begins on Wednesday 12 January and runs through to Saturday 15 January. The draw will take place tomorrow. As soon as each player qualifies for the main draw OCA will add their names right here -> No.1 seed (1) Blaz KAVCIC,(3) Grigor DIMITROV, (6) Ryan SWEETING, (9) Daniel GREMELMAYR, (11) Gilles MULLER, (12) Stephane ROBERT, (15) Donald YOUNG, (18) Nicolas MAHUT, (21) Grega ZEMLJA, (26) Milos RAONIC, (31) Vincent MILLOT, Marco CRUGNOLA, Flavio CIPOLLA, Frank DANCEVIC, Simon STADLER and Jan HERNYCH.
To see the FULL 2011 Men’s Schedule of Play, prize money and ATP ranking points earned per round plus more details about the qualifying event click HERE. The seeding for the Australian Open is allocated according to the latest ATP rankings before the draw is made. Just now the new rankings were released for the week commencing 10 January 2011. Therefore, the 2011 Australian Open men’s singles seeds are:
- Seeds 1-8: 1-Rafael Nadal, 2-Roger Federer, 3-Novak Djokovic, 4-Robin Soderling, 5-Andy Murray, 6-Tomas Berdych, 7-David Ferrer, 8-Andy Roddick
- Seeds 9-16: 9-Fernando Verdasco, 10-Mikhail Youzhny, 11-Jurgen Melzer, 12-Gael Monfils, 13-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 14-Nicolas Almagro, 15-Marin Cilic, 16-Mardy Fish
- Seeds 17-24: 17-Ivan Ljubicic, 18-Sam Querrey, 19-Stanislas Wawrinka, 20-John Isner, 21-Marcos Baghdatis, 22-Michael Llodra, 23-Nikolay Davydenko, 24-Ernests Gulbis
- Seeds 25-32: 25-Albert Montanes, 26-Juan Monaco, 27-David Nalbandian, 28-Richard Gasquet, 29-Vicktor Troicki, 30-Thomaz Bellucci, 31-Feliciano Lopez and 32-Guillermo Garcia Lopez
If any of the seeded players withdraw from the Australian Open during the week OCA will update the seeded players list above straight away. No.21 seed Marcos Baghdatis and No.28 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero are in doubt with injuries. In which case World No.33 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez will move into the seedings and the next player in line to be promoted to a seed is No.34 Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Update: 13 January – No.28 Juan Carlos Ferrero withdrew citing an injury.
The 2010 Australian Open Men’s singles runner-up Andy Murray is pictured above at the 2010 Shanghai Open Masters 1000 tournament in China as he sets the ball in place during his service action. The 1.9m Murray lost to Federer 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (13-11) in his second Grand Slam singles final.
The 23-year-old from Scotland defeated Federer 6-3 6-2 to win the Shanghai title and defeated both Federer and Nadal to win the Canadian Open Masters 1000 singles title last year, once again on his favourite hard court surface. Murray will be hoping its third time lucky if he can win his way through to the Men’s Singles Final again.
Stay tuned to this tennis website for full coverage of every Grand Slam tournament and every major women’s and men’s tennis tournament on the WTA and ATP Tours. Click this link for further details about the Australian Open -> Australian Open 2011: January 12-30.
photo credit: Dan Heyler
