Tough Start For Top Seeds

A number of the men’s seeds have drawn tough first-round opponents for Australian Open 2004, with the prospect of some enthralling match-ups between high-profile players as early as the second and third rounds.

Top seed and world No.1 Andy Roddick has drawn Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, who reached the fourth-round at Melbourne Park in 2002.

Should Roddick progress to the third-round, his likely opponent is No.27 seed and fellow American Taylor Dent.

The draw fell much more kindly for No.2 seed Roger Federer of Switzerland - at least in the early rounds. He will play a qualifier first up and then either Dutchman Dennis Van Scheppingen or another qualifier next.

However should the seeds progress, Federer faces a third-round clash with two-time Australian Open quarter-finalist Jonas Bjorkman, of Sweden, and then an enticing fourth-round encounter with No.15 seed Lleyton Hewitt.

Hewitt, who has also drawn a qualifier in the first-round, would welcome the chance to reprise their classic Davis Cup semi-final match of three months ago, which saw the Australian come back from two sets and a break down to win the match and seal the tie.

Defending champion Andre Agassi, the No.4 seed, begins his campaign for a record fifth Australian Open title against Australian wildcard Todd Larkham, who faced an equally tough assignment last year when he played Hewitt in the second-round.

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