The draw for the 2009 Australian Open was made on Friday with Andy Murray drawn against Romanian Andrei Pavel in the first round, the 34 year old, Pavel, has been out with injury since Feb 2008 and the Aussie open will be his first event back on tour, is current rank is in the 1000′s, though was ranked mid 70′s just before his injury.
Murray is in the same half of the draw as world number 1 Rafael Nadal and would meet in semi finals if both made it that far. Roger Federer and defending champion Novak Djokovic are on the opposite side and would also meet in semi finals if both made that stage.
Murray’s quarter contains seeds James Blake (9th), Igor Andreev (18th) and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga (5th) all possible quarter final opponents. Tsonga eliminated Murray in the first round of the 2008 Australian Open and went all the way to the final.
Providing he negotiates the on-paper simple task of beating Andrei Pavel, Murray will play of Russia’s Teimuraz Gabashvili or Spain’s Marcel Granollers in round two with with Japan’s Kei Nishikori or the first possible seeded player Murray could meet Austria’s Jurgen Melzer (31) likely to be waiting in round three. Murray and Melzer met at the same stage of the 2008 US open and played an epic match, with Murray coming from 2 sets down to win 6-7(5) 4-6 7-6(5) 6-1 6-3.
Spaniard Fernando Verdasco (14th seed) is seeded to be Murray’s round four opponent,
| Australian Open – First Round Draw – 1st Quarter | |||||
| [1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) | vs | Christophe Rochus (BEL) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Florent Serra (FRA) | vs | Roko Karanusic (CRO) | |||
| Eduardo Schwank (ARG) | vs | Tommy Haas (GER) | Second Round |
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| Flavio Cipolla (ITA) | vs | [29] Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) | |||
| [24] Richard Gasquet (FRA) | vs | Diego Junqueira (ARG) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Vincent Spadea (USA) | vs | Denis Istomin (UZB) | |||
| Guillermo Canas (ARG) | vs | Dieter Kindlmann (GER) | Second Round |
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| Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) | vs | [13] Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) | |||
| [12] Gael Monfils (FRA) | vs | Martin V. Arguello (ARG) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) | vs | Stefan Koubek (AUT) | |||
| Andrey Golubev (KAZ) | vs | Fabio Fognini (ITA) | Second Round |
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| Nicolas Massu (CHI) | vs | [17] Nicolas Almagro (ESP) | |||
| [25] Ivo Karlovic (CRO) | vs | Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Wayne Odesnik (USA) | vs | Mario Ancic (CRO) | |||
| Chris Guccione (AUS) | vs | Nicolas Devilder (FRA) | Second Round |
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| Pablo Andujar (ESP) | vs | [6] Gilles Simon (FRA) | |||
| Australian Open – First Round Draw – 2nd Quarter | |||||
| [4] Andy Murray (GBR) | vs | Andrei Pavel (ROU) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS) | vs | Marcel Granollers (ESP) | |||
| Andreas Beck (GER) | vs | Colin Ebelthite (AUS) | Second Round |
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| Kei Nishikori (JPN) | vs | [31] Jurgen Melzer (AUT) | |||
| [22] Radek Stepanek (CZE) | vs | Nicolas Lapentti (ECU) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Michael Berrer (GER) | vs | Carsten Ball (AUS) | |||
| Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) | vs | Arnaud Clement (FRA) | Second Round |
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| Adrian Mannarino (FRA) | vs | [14] Fernando Verdasco (ESP) | |||
| [9] James Blake (USA) | vs | Frank Dancevic ((L)) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Sebastien De Chaunac (FRA) | vs | Steve Darcis (BEL) | |||
| Albert Montanes (ESP) | vs | Ernests Gulbis (LAT) | Second Round |
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| Peter Polansky (CAN) | vs | [18] Igor Andreev (RUS) | |||
| [30] Rainer Schuettler (GER) | vs | Dudi Sela (ISR) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Victor Hanescu (ROU) | vs | Jan Hernych (CZE) | |||
| Ivan Ljubicic (CRO) | vs | Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) | Second Round |
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| Juan Monaco (ARG) | vs | [5] Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) | |||
| Australian Open – First Round Draw – 3rd Quarter | |||||
| [7] Andy Roddick (USA) | vs | Bjorn Rehnquist (SWE) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Xavier Malisse (BEL) | vs | Michael Llodra (FRA) | |||
| Juan Ferrero (ESP) | vs | Fabrice Santoro (FRA) | Second Round |
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| Sam Querrey (USA) | vs | [32] P. Kohlschreiber (GER) | |||
| [21] Tommy Robredo (ESP) | vs | Bobby Reynolds (USA) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Alberto Martin (ESP) | vs | Viktor Troicki (SRB) | |||
| Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) | vs | Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) | Second Round |
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| Marc Gicquel (FRA) | vs | [10] David Nalbandian (ARG) | |||
| [16] Robin Soderling (SWE) | vs | Robert Kendrick (USA) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Julien Benneteau (FRA) | vs | Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) | |||
| Simone Bolelli (ITA) | vs | Kristof Vliegen (BEL) | Second Round |
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| Samuel Groth (AUS) | vs | [23] Mardy Fish (USA) | |||
| [28] Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) | vs | Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Taylor Dent (USA) | vs | Amer Delic ((L)) | |||
| Jeremy Chardy (FRA) | vs | Marcos Daniel (BRA) | Second Round |
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| Andrea Stoppini (ITA) | vs | [3] Novak Djokovic (SRB) | |||
| Australian Open – First Round Draw – 4th Quarter | |||||
| [8] J.M. Del Potro (ARG) | vs | Mischa Zverev (GER) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Lamine Ouahab (ALG) | vs | Florian Mayer (GER) | |||
| Potito Starace (ITA) | vs | Bernard Tomic (AUS) | Second Round |
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| Gilles Muller (LUX) | vs | [27] Feliciano Lopez (ESP) | |||
| [19] Marin Cilic (CRO) | vs | Kevin Anderson (RSA) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Oscar Hernandez (ESP) | vs | Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) | |||
| Dominik Hrbaty (SVK) | vs | John Isner (USA) | Second Round |
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| Denis Gremelmayr (GER) | vs | [11] David Ferrer (ESP) | |||
| [15] Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) | vs | Ivo Minar (CZE) | Second Round |
Third Round |
Fourth Round |
| Bjorn Phau (GER) | vs | Brydan Klein (AUS) | |||
| Brian Dabul (ARG) | vs | Philipp Petzschner (GER) | Second Round |
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| Robby Ginepri (USA) | vs | [20] Tomas Berdych (CZE) | |||
| [26] Marat Safin (RUS) | vs | Ivan Navarro (ESP) | Second Round |
Third Round |
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| Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) | vs | Agustin Calleri (ARG) | |||
| Evgeny Korolev (RUS) | vs | Carlos Moya (ESP) | Second Round |
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| Andreas Seppi (ITA) | vs | [2] Roger Federer (SUI) | |||