Australian Open 2018: Projected routes to the men’s singles final for the top players

The Australian Open 2018 draw has been made and we are now just four days away from the season-opening Grand Slam. In this article, we take a look at the projected routes to the men’s singles final for the top four seeds and the returning Novak Djokovic.

Note: Projected routes have been developed based on the assumption that the higher seeded/ranked player will win their respective matches.

Rafael Nadal

The World No. 1 has got a comfortable first week to get the hang of the surroundings. He starts off his campaign with a first-round match against Dominican Republic’s Víctor Estrella Burgos. Once that’s done, he might have to navigate the Argentine Leonardo Mayer and Bosnian Damir Džumhur in the next two rounds.

Week 2 is when things get interesting, as there is a prospect of a fourth round clash with American big-hitter John Isner. He would then possibly face 2017 Wimbledon finalist Marin Cilic.

The semi-final and the final matches are well poised to be a repeat of last year’s encounters in Rafa’s case as ATP Finals winner Grigor Dimitrov and defending champion Roger Federer could wait at the other end.