Melbourne, Jan 15 (NA) – The draw for the Australian Open took place this Thursday morning, so the Argentine tennis players who will be present in both the men's and women's main draws now know their rivals. The largest concentration of Argentines will be in the men's draw, as Francisco Cerúndolo (18th), Sebastián Báez, Camilo Ugo Carabelli, Tomás Etcheverry, Francisco Comesaña, Mariano Navone, Juan Manuel Cerúndolo, and Thiago Tirante all qualified. The only Argentine to enter as a seeded player is Francisco Cerúndolo, who benefited greatly from the draw as he will debut in the first round against Chinese player Zhizhen Zhang, according to the Argentine News Agency. In the second round, he would face the winner of the match between Bosnian Damir Dzumhur and a player from the qualifiers. Only in a potential third round could he face a high-caliber player, who in this case would be Russian Andrey Rublev. The other Argentine with a chance to go far in this edition of the Australian Open is Sebastián Báez, who has had an impressive start to the season. The native of San Martín, who won all five matches he played in this 2026, will have a difficult debut against Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, who has an almost amateur level from the baseline but can trouble anyone with his impressive serve. Additionally, Ugo Carabelli will face Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, Etcheverry will face Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic, Comesaña will face American Patrick Kypson, Navone will face Serbian Hamad Medjedovic, Juan Manuel Cerúndolo will face local Jordan Thompson, and Tirante will face Australian Aleksandar Vukic. In the women's draw, the only Argentine will be Solana Sierra, who made history last year by reaching the quarter-finals at Wimbledon after coming through the qualifiers, where she had to win three more matches. On this occasion, the Mar del Plata native will face Japanese Moyuka Uchijima. The rivals of the top contenders. In this edition of the Australian Open, the top candidate to win the title will be Italian and two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner (2nd), who will debut against Frenchman Hugo Gaston. However, Spanish world number one Carlos Alcaraz appears as the main threat to the Italian, whom he could only face in a potential final. Alcaraz's opponent in the first round will be Australian Adam Walton. Finally, the other contenders could be German Alexander Zverev (3rd) or the most winning player in history, Serbian Novak Djokovic (4th), although both seem to be several steps below Alcaraz and Sinner at the moment. Zverev's debut will be against Canadian Gabriel Diallo, while Djokovic will face Spanish Pedro Martínez.
