The qualification draw for the Australian Open, which starts on Monday, has given the German and Austrian men’s team the chance to make a realistic opening draw.
We can start in Melbourne, on Wednesday the qualifiers will start at the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. In addition to two Austrian pros, five German men also want to qualify for the main field.
Wimbledon sensationist Sebastian Ofner meets the experienced Frenchman Stephane Robert, Dennis Novak opens against Ilya Ivashka from Belarus.
From a German point of view, things could have been worse: Yannick Hanfmann competes with Evan King from the USA, while Dustin Brown plays Argentinean Guido Andreozzi. Matthias Bachinger was less fortunate: his opening opponent Sergiy Stakhovsky has not only been an unpleasant adversary since his Wimbledon coup against Roger Federer.
Australia’s enfant terrible Bernard Tomic, whose participation in the qualification was unclear for a long time, is confronted with Vincent Millot from France.
All qualifying opponents of the German and Austrian men at a glance:
Yannick Hanfmann (Karlsruhe/10) – Evan King (USA)
Dustin Brown (Winsen/17) – Guido Andreozzi (Argentina)
Oscar Otte (Cologne/23) – Go Soeada (Japan)
Sebastian Ofner (Sankt Marein/30) – Stephane Robert (France)
Dennis Novak (Newfield) – Ilya Ivashka (Belarus)
Tobias Kamke (Hamburg) – Prajnesh Gunneswaran (India)
Matthias Bachinger (Munich) – Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukraine/16)
The draw for the main draw will take place on Thursday morning at 9 a. m. CET.
Click here for the complete Qualifying Draw