With the Australian Open draw happening today, the men's defending champion is still waiting to hear whether Immigration Minister Alex Hawke will cancel his visa. Follow live.
The Australian Open draw will be happening this afternoon.At 3:00pm AEDT we’ll have the draw for the Aus Open and all eyes, as ever, will be on Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic will still be entered into the draw and as the number one seed he’ll be scheduled to face a relatively easy opponent first up – that is, if he even makes it to the tournament in the first place.While Immigration Minister Alex Hawke could make the call on Djokovic’s visa status as early as today, there’s no guarantee a decision will be made, meaning the exact makeup of the tournament will be uncertain right until the start date on Monday.
Regardless of what happens to Djokovic, there’s still some tennis to be played – Alex de Minaur is the only seeded Australian male, coming in at 32nd, meaning he’ll avoid the tournament heavyweights until the third round. On the women’s side, Ash Barty enters the tournament as the top seed as she attempts to become the first home-grown winner at Melbourne Park since Chis O’Neil in 1978.