Rafael Nadal starts his Brisbane campaign against a qualifier

Rafael Nadal, the former world no. 1 player, will face a qualifier in

the Brisbane International’s opening round of play.

In the second round, Nadal might play Australian wild card Jason Kubler or eighth seed Aslan Karatsev.

In the fourth round, he might play Ugo Humbert.

Due to a psoas muscle injury, the Spaniard was limited to just four games in 2023 and

had to miss the remainder of the campaign.

In his lone prior trip to the Brisbane International in 2019,

the quarterfinals before falling to Milos Raonic.

2009 and 2022 were Nadal’s two Australian Open victories.

In a thrilling first-round match, 2017 ATP Finals champion Grigor Dimitrov will take on

former world number one Andy Murray.

In their most recent meeting at the 2023 US Open, Dimitrov defeated his British opponent 6-3 6-4 6-1.

Murray has an 8-4 advantage in their past 12 head-to-head meetings.

Max Purcell of Australia will face top seed Holger Rune in his season debut.

This year, Rune qualified for two Masters 1000 finals in Monte-Carlo and

Rome in addition to winning the Munich title.

Ben Shelton, the Australian Open quarterfinalist from this year, will take on Roman Safiulin,

the Wimbledon quarterfinalist from 2023, to start his campaign.

At the US Open, Shelton advanced to his first Grand Slam semifinal before falling to Novak Djokovic, the eventual winner.

The American player advanced to the Shanghai Masters 1000 tournament quarterfinals and

won his maiden ATP title in Tokyo.

Sebastian Korda, ranked fifth, will take on Yannick Hanfmann in the first round.

Korda wasted a championship point in the Adelaide 1 International final, losing to Novak Djokovic.

For the first time in his career, the American player advanced to the Grand Slam quarterfinals after defeating Hubert Hurkacz.

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