US Open 2022 men’s draw: Nadal faces Australian wildcard Hijikata in first round

Twenty-two time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal will face Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata in the first round of the US Open.

FILE PHOTO: Rafael Nadal

Twenty-two time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal will face Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata in the first round of the US Open.

Russian Daniil Medvedev will begin his title defense against American Stefan Kozlov. Medvedev became the first non-’Big-3’ (Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic) player since 2004 to become no.1 seed at the U.S Open

Novak Djokovic, last year’s runner-up, will not play at Flushing Meadows, as expected, because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and thus is not allowed to travel to the United States. He announced his withdrawal from the year’s last Grand Slam tournament on Twitter on Thursday, hours before the draw for the event was revealed.

Wimbledon finalist and 23rd seed Nick Kyrgios will face fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis in the opening round.

Dominic Thiem, 2020 US Open champion, has been awarded a wildcard and will be up against 12th-seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta in first round.

Third-seeded Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz, who reached the quarterfinals in 2021, will play Argentine Sebastian Baez first up.

Fourth-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost to Alcaraz in the third round last year, will face a qualifier while 2012 US Open champion Andy Murray will be up against 24th-seeded Argentine Francisco Cerundolo in the first round.

Potential quarterfinal line-ups - Medvedev vs Felix Auger-Aliassime, Tsitsipas vs Casper Ruud, Nadal vs Cameron Norrie, Alcaraz vs Hubert Hurkacz.