Australian Open 2020: Croatian players learn draw

Borna Coric (Photo credit: Mario Cuzic/HTS)

16 January 2020 – The first Grand Slam of the year gets under way in Melbourne next week and today the Croatian players involved learned their opening round opponents. 

Five Croatian players will feature in the singles at the Australian Open this year, Borna Coric, Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic in the men’s and Petra Martic and Donna Vekic in the women’s. There could be a sixth player as Viktor Galovic play his qualifier on Friday to enter the main draw. 

Marin Cilic (Photo credit: Mario Cuzic/HTS)

25th seed Coric will face American Sam Querrey in the first round on Monday, whilst Cilic will meet Corentin Moutet from France first up. Ivo Karlovic, who is now ranked outside the top 100, will play Vasek Pospisil from Canada who has an ATP ranking of 146. 

In the women’s draw, 13th seed Martic, who achieved a career-high ranking last week of no.14,  will play American Christine McHale for a place in the second round. Vekic, who was impressive in Adelaide in the warm-up tournament for the Grand Slam, will play former world no.1 Maria Sharapova. Vekic has played Sharapova just the once and lost. 

Donna Vekic (Photo credit: Mario Cuzic/HTS)

7-time Australian Open champ Novak Djokovic has been drawn on the same side of the draw as Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas, whilst world No. 1 Rafael Nadal is in the top half of the draw with Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem.

The Australian Open will take place from 20 January until 4 February.