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Plenty of Australian men in Open warm-ups

3 minute read

Almost 20 Australian men will take to the court in the two ATP Australian Open warm-up events, including Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Bernard Tomic will ensure the Murray River Open has a distinctly local flavour on day one with a swag of home-town clashes in the Australian Open lead-up event.

Named after different regions of Victoria, the Great Ocean Road Open will be played concurrently at Melbourne Park, with both ATP tournaments getting underway on Monday.

The majority of the game's big stars, including Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, will play in the 12-country ATP Cup, starting in Melbourne on Tuesday.

World No.47 Kyrgios will take on Frenchman Alexandre Muller, ranked 208, in round one, in his first professional match since February.

There are 11 Australian men in the 56-strong field, while former Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka is the top seed and has a first round bye.

There are two local battles including a showdown between Kokkinakis and Alex Bolt, while Tomic takes on Marc Polmans.

Tomic and Kyrgios are in line for a round two meeting.

Seven Australian men feature in the Great Ocean Road Open singles draw, headed by world No.52 Jordan Thompson, who plays Italian Gianluca Mager in the first round.

Wildcard John-Patrick Smith faces American Tennys Sandgren, an Australian Open 2020 quarter-finalist.