Tokyo 2020 draw: Djokovic faces Dellien, Zheng Saisai for Osaka
Novak Djokovic’s quest for Tokyo 2020 Olympic glory for Serbia will begin with a first-round showdown against Bolivia's Hugo Dellien, while home hope Naomi Osaka will launch her bid for Japan’s first gold medal in tennis against Zheng Saisai of China, as revealed in the Olympic Tennis Event draws released on the eve of the Olympic Games.
The first-round ties were unveiled precisely 48 hours before players will take to court for the opening action at Ariake Tennis Park, which begins at 11:00 local time on Saturday 24 July.
Hot on the heels of her Wimbledon triumph, women’s singles top seed Ashleigh Barty will make her Olympic debut for Australia against Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo. Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed in the men’s singles draw, is up against Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik in the first round.
Great Britain’s reigning men’s singles Olympic champion Andy Murray will begin his bid for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic title in the same tennis event against Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, while Petra Kvitova, who claimed women’s singles bronze for Czech Republic at Rio 2016, takes on Jasmine Paolini of Italy.
Elsewhere, both singles draws have produced a string of intriguing first-round matches, including a mouth-watering opener between Rio 2016 bronze medallist Kei Nishikori and Andrey Rublev, Carla Suarez Navarro’s Spanish Olympic swansong beginning against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, and Wimbledon finalist Hubert Hurkacz taking on Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics to name but a few.
In the doubles draws, Croatian men's top seeds Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic will open against Brazil's Marcelo Melo and Marcelo Demoliner – a late change in partnership after Bruno Soares was hit by appendicitis on his arrival in Tokyo – while Czech women's top seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova take on Hsieh Yu-Chieh and Hsu Chieh-Yu of Chinese Taipei.
Among the other standout clashes, British pair Joe Salisbury and Andy Murray will face French second seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, while Colombian No. 3 seeds Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah will take on Spanish pair Pablo Carreno Busta and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Women’s No. 3 seeds Kiki Bertens and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands face a tough opener against French former world No. 1s Caroline Garcia and Kiki Mladenovic, while Spaniards Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro will take on doubles world No. 1 Elise Mertens and Belgian partner Alison van Uytvanck.
The entry list and draw for the mixed doubles event will both be published on Tuesday 27 July.