RIO DE JANEIRO, August 4, 2016
Top seed Novak Djokovic has been drawn on Thursday against Juan Martin del Potro in a blockbuster first round match at the Olympic Tennis Event in Rio de Janeiro.
The Argentine defeated Djokovic to win singles bronze at London 2012 and could prove a serious threat to the world number one’s hopes of completing the career golden slam in Rio de Janeiro.
Holaaa amiguito. Me extrañaste? 😄🙄
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Hello my friend. Did you miss me? 😄🙄 @DjokerNole pic.twitter.com/nihBumS4vx
— Juan M. del Potro (@delpotrojuan) 14. März 2016
Rio Men’s singles Tennis Draw
Reigning gold medallist and world number two Andy Murray will open his campaign at the Barra Olympic Park against Djokovic’s compatriot, Viktor Troicki. Murray has won all seven of his tour-level meetings with Troicki, including each of their three hard court meetings in straight sets – and will be confident of securing a second round match against the winner of the encounter between Argentine Juan Monaco and Mirza Basic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Third seed Rafael Nadal will return to the courts for the first time since Roland Garros with an opening round clash against Argentina’s Federico Delbonis, while fourth favourite Kei Nishikori opens against Spaniard Albert Ramos.
In the men’s doubles event, French top seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert will begin their campaign with a testing opener against Colombian duo Juan Sebastien Cabal and Robert Farah, while the Murray brothers, Andy and Jamie, will have to overcome both their opponents and a partisan crowd when the take on Brazilian pair Thomaz Bellucci and Andre Sa.
Fellow Brazilian duo Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, strongly tipped to win a medal on home soil with both players having won Grand Slam doubles titles over the last 18 months, will tackle Thai brothers Sanchai and Sonchat Ratiwatana, while fourth seeds Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are up against US-American duo Brian Baker and Rajeev Ram.
