TENNIS AT THE RIO OLYMPICS BEGINS ON SATURDAY, DJOKOVIC PLAYS JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO AND RAFA NADAL IS ALSO IN SAME HALF OF THE DRAW

Written by: Staff on 5th August 2016

TENNIS AT THE RIO OLYMPICS BEGINS ON SATURDAY, DJOKOVIC PLAYS JUAN MARTIN DEL POTRO AND RAFA NADAL IS ALSO IN SAME HALF OF THE DRAW

epa05453397 Novak Djokovic of Serbia performs during a training session for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 03 August 2016. EPA/JOSE MENDEZ |

By Ricky Dimon

The singles draw for the Rio Olympics tennis tournament was revealed on Thursday morning, and the festivities were highlighted by Rafael Nadal landing in the same half of the bracket as world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. But that is not where the big news ends for Djokovic, because he will open right off the bat against 2012 bronze medalist Juan Martin Del Potro. It was Del Potro who beat Djokovic to capture the bronze at the London Games.

Rafael Nadal of Spain performs during his training session prior to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Tennis events at the Olympic Tennis Centre in the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 02 August 2016. EPA/ERIK S. LESSER

As for Nadal, he is making his first appearance since withdrawing after two rounds into the French Open because of a wrist injury. The 2008 gold medalist in Beijing is not backing down from a heavy workload in Rio, where he is scheduled to compete in all three disciplines–men’s singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles with Garbine Muguruza. Nadal will kick off his singles campaign against left-handed Argentine Federico Delbonis before potentially meeting David Goffin in the quarters and Djokovic in the semis.

Second-seeded Andy Murray, who won gold four years ago in London (at Wimbledon, more specifically), will contest his opener against Viktor Troicki. Early-round encounters with Juan Monaco and Benoit Paire are possibly in the cards for Murray, as well, while the bottom section of the draw also features David Ferrer and Steve Johnson.

A red-hot Gael Monfils cannot be overlooked. The Washington, D.C. champion secured a top-eight seed thanks in part to the absences of Roger Federer, Stan Wawrinka, and Tomas Berdych, among others. That guaranteed Monfils at least a decent draw and that is exactly what he got. In Kei Nishikori’s section, the Frenchman will open with a slumping Vasek Pospisil and would then get either Rogerio Dutra Silva or Thomas Fabbiano. Marin Cilic and Grigor Dimitrov are among the potential third-round adversaries for Monfils.

One of the most enticing first-round showdowns pits Cilic against Dimitrov on Saturday, when they square off for the third time in their careers. They split their two previous contests, with Cilic getting the job done 7-5, 7-5 two seasons ago in Brisbane before Dimitrov prevailed 7-6(3), 7-6(2) indoors at the Paris Masters last fall. It has mostly been downhill for the Bulgarian since their last tilts, as his disappointing 23-17 record in 2016 has him down at No. 34 in the world.

Even though Cilic is a similarly lackluster 24-16 this year, he has reached quarterfinals in Indian Wells and at Wimbledon. The 14th-ranked Croat is a modest 1-2 on American hard courts this summer, having gone 1-1 in Davis Cup singles action against the United States before dropping his Toronto opener in straight sets to Ivo Karlovic.

The American contingent is without John Isner, but Jack Sock and Steve Johnson snuck into seeded positions following the mass exodus of higher-ranked players. Brian Baker is in on a protected ranking.