2024-01-11 12:13:24
An entry shock for Caroline Garcia. The Frenchwoman, seeded number 16 in the first Grand Slam tournament of the season, inherited the Japanese Naomi Osaka in the first round, former world number one.
Osaka, 26 years old and crowned four times in the Grand Slam – in New York in 2018 and 2020 and in Melbourne in 2019 and 2021 – has not played at this level of competition since the 2022 US Open. She recently gave birth of her first child, a little Shai who was born last July. Among the other French women entered, Alizé Cornet, who will participate in her 68th consecutive Grand Slam tournament, inherited a qualifier.
Among the men, only two French people have seeded status: Adrian Mannarino (n°20) and Ugo Humbert (n°21). The first named also inherited a former Grand Slam tournament winner, the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
A qualifier for Djokovic
As for Humbert, he will have to wait until the end of the qualifying tournament to know the name of his future opponent. Gaël Monfils will meet the German Yannick Hanfmann and Arthur Fils, 19 years old and 35th in the ATP rankings, will face Jiri Vesely before a possible second round against Roman Safiullin, quarter-finalist of the last Wimbledon.
Big favorite of the men’s tournament, Novak Djokovic will start with a qualifier then could find the young Italian Jannik Sinner in the semi-finals, the only one to have been able to beat him at the end of 2023. With 24 major crowns to his name, the world number one is already the most successful man in the Grand Slam, ahead of Rafael Nadal (22), who withdrew from Melbourne due to a “muscle micro-tear” in his third match back, and Roger Federer (20). The Serbian is aiming for an eleventh coronation in Melbourne.
In this same men’s draw, the other theoretical semi-final will pit world number Carlos Alcaraz against number 3 Daniil Medvedev. The 20-year-old Spaniard will also face a Frenchman in the first round: Richard Gasquet, who is preparing to leave the top 100 for the first time since 2005.
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