Australian Open 2022: Roger Federer's loss is Feliciano Lopez's gain
The entry list for the main draw at the 2022 Australian Open is out, and the men's singles draw has two big names missing. Roger Federer is out of the tournament as he undergoes rehabilitation following his knee surgery in September.
Other than Roger Federer, all 49 of the top 50 players are in the main draw.
The other notable omission is fellow Swiss and three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka, who is still recovering from a foot injury that caused him to miss most of 2021. Also missing from the list is World No. 74 Guido Pella.
Australian Open update:
OUT: Federer, Pella, Wawrinka
IN: Kudla, Lopez, Querrey
Next: Bedene
Their losses are gains for Denis Kudla, Feliciano Lopez and Sam Querrey, who have been granted entry into the tournament.
104 of the 128 competing places in the tournament are awarded to players based on their ATP rankings. Therefore, each player dropping out enables a player outside the top 104 onto the list.
World No. 107 Jeremy Chardy should have been the third player to come into the draw, but he has chosen to withdraw from the tournament citing adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccination as his reason.
The biggest winner as a result of Roger Federer and the others dropping out is Feliciano Lopez. The Spanish player will be making a record 79th consecutive appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam since Roland Garros in 2002, and 80th overall.
What the tennis world looked like when Feliciano Lopez's streak began
When Feliciano Lopez makes his record 79th appearance at a Grand Slam in January, Russia's Daniil Medvedev will be ranked No. 2, Germany's Alexander Zverev will be No. 3 and Russia's Andrey Rublev will be No. 5.
When Lopez started his streak 20 years ago, it was surprisingly similar. Russia's Marat Safin was World No. 2, Germany's Tommy Haas was No. 3, and Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov was No. 5.
79th consecutive Grand Slam main draw for Feli Lopez.
🇷🇺Safin, 🇩🇪Haas and 🇷🇺Kafelnikov were No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 when his streak started.
🇷🇺Medvedev, 🇩🇪Zverev and 🇷🇺Rublev will be No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 when his streak continues in Melbourne. twitter.com/EntryLists/sta…
At one point, Roger Federer himself held the record for most consecutive Grand Slam appearances, but the streak ended at 65 when the Swiss had to pull out of the 2016 French Open.
Although Fernando Verdasco beat Federer with 67 consecutive Major appearances leading up to the 2020 Australian Open, the record had already gone to Lopez at Wimbledon 2018.