Australian Open 2020 draw: Coco Gauff to play Venus Williams and Jo Konta on course to take on Serena
BRITISH HOPE Johanna Konta is on a collision course with history-chasing Serena Williams in the Australian Open.
And Venus Williams faces the terrifying prospect of playing Coco Gauff in the first round in Melbourne in a repeat of that famous Wimbledon upset.
Konta, 28, will take on Tunisian Ons Jabeur in her opening match in Australia next week. The British No.1, who is ranked 12th in the draw, could face Serena in the Last 16 if it goes to plan with the seeding.
The pair have only played twice before but Konta will be able to recall her 6-1 6-0 victory at the 2018 Silicon Valley Classic.
Annabel Croft, who will report for Eurosport live during the event, reckons Konta has the guts and belief to go far despite revealing she has had knee problems.
Croft, 53, told SunSport: “I wouldn’t be writing her off just yet because she has this determination. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if she got to another Slam semi-final this year.
“She’s very professional. You can never accuse her of not putting the effort in or losing matches from being unprepared.
“Her record in majors is pretty impressive. It’s very difficult to predict the women’s game these days. You cannot write somebody like her off, especially someone who has been as high as four in the world and been to the semis of majors.
“She loves Australia and has always traditionally played pretty well there.
“The knee injuries are a concern. You don’t know how much to push yourself. You don’t know how much it will hurt if you go full blast. If you are constantly stop-start with injuries, it’s really hard.”
American Williams, 38, is aiming to win a 24th singles Slam victory, which would draw her level with Margaret Court. First up for the No.8 seed is Anastasia Potapova.
Her elder sister Venus, who turns 40 in June, is probably going to have some sleepless nights given the horror draw against the 15-year-old prodigy Gauff.
The pair met at SW19 last summer and Gauff sent shockwaves across the sport when she won 6-4 6-4 before losing to eventual champion Simona Halep in the fourth round.
It made the teenager an international star overnight and she will fancy her chances of causing another shock, this time in the first Slam if the year.
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Elsewhere in the women’s draw, Heather Watson plays Czech Kristyna Pliskova, Katie Boulter takes on sixth seed Elina Svitolina from Ukraine and wildcard Maria Sharapova plays Donna Vekic.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic opens his defence and quest for eighth singles title against German Jan-Lennard Struff.
Intriguingly he could face Brit Daniel Evans in the third round. Evans, 29, was the most improved player of 2019 and the 30th seed will play American Mackenzie McDonald in his opening match.
No.3 seed Roger Federer, who is in the same half of the draw as Djokovic, is up against American Steve Johnson.
World No.1 Rafa Nadal, the 2019 runner-up, takes on Bolivian Hugo Dellien but could face arch-nemesis Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round.
From the British perspective, Cameron Norrie takes on Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert, while out-of-form Kyle Edmund is drawn against Serbian No.24 Dusan Lajovic.
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