Andy Murray faces Alexander Zverev in Australian Open first round

Current champion Novak Djokovic, who beat Murray in last year’s final, will face up and coming Hyeon Chung, while Roger Federer, who won the last of his four Australian titles in 2010, plays Nikoloz Basilashvili.

Murray, who has been named the number two seed, has been placed in the same half of the draw as Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka and Spain’s Rafa Nadal and could meet either player in the semi-finals.

Top seed Serena Williams is bidding to equal Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22 grand slam titles but the world number one will not have it easy in Melbourne. “There’s no disrespect losing to Djokovic and Federer in finals”.

He is thus keen to end the skid, and doing so in Melbourne might be sweeter for the Scot since he has lost four finals at the Australian Open – three to Djokovic.

Federer, who lost five finals to Djokovic in 2015, said the Qatar Open final score emphasized the difference between the No. 1-ranked player and the rest. If he manages to win that however, the Swiss legend could also have to face Bulgarian 27th see, Grigor Dimitrov in the third round. The two, who share an agent, met last week in Brisbane, Federer winning in three sets.

The 29th-seeded Aussie opens against Pablo Carreno Busta and could run into Berdych in the third round. Coric is probably the most talented player of them all, however, the 19-year-old is still developing. Ferrer could face Lleyton Hewitt in what would be an interesting finale for the Australian.

American John Isner has quietly worked his way back to a top-10 seeding, the 6-foot-10 North Carolina native drawn to face a fellow big server in Jerzy Janowicz in the first round. Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka is a potential fourth-round opponent, while Angelique Kerber looms as a quarterfinal match-up before a possible semifinal against Halep.

She retired from her opening match at the Hopman Cup in Perth due to a knee injury in the first week of January and then withdrew from the tournament altogether.

Meanwhile, Britain’s Heather Watson has been drawn against Timea Babos of Hungary in the first grand slam of 2016. Brian Baker, a former world No. 52, returns from a series of knee injuries under a protected ranking, the Nashville native without a competitive match since the U.S. Open in 2013.

Serena Williams had an outstanding 2015 season.

Overall, a really nice, even draw with lots of interesting matchups.

“Novak is a huge favourite but I hope every time it’s not going to be like this”, he said.

Second seed Andy Murray takes on emerging German Alexander Zverev, with David Ferrer in the Brit’s quarter.

She said that the relationship with tennis was now far more focused on the content opportunities with the tennis star, going behinds the scenes with him and creating work customers were keen to engage with. They are expecting their first child.

Wawrinka is projected to face big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the fourth round, while Nadal could take on South African Kevin Anderson in the last 16.