re: The Unofficial 2016 Australian Open Thread

You can watch every single court this year on the Watch ESPN app.

That's pretty awesome.

Bengal are you betting any of the matches?

I haven't yet, no.

lol yep

I'd love to stay up for the Hewitt match tonight but I don't think I'll make it that late.

Big win for Rubin over Paire.

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Wozniacki bounced first round

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How is she so terrible? She's flaming out quickly

Did Stephens just decide to mail it in after losing 9 games in a row? Or did she actually try? I believe she was up 3-1 in first and blew up.

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No I loved that one!

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Yeah, I liked the old one.

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This Chung guy looks good against Djokovic.

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I thought the Wang girl looked good against Sloane. Would smash.

Draw Analysis:

I'll go in the order of what I'l refer to as Quadrants 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Quadrant 1:
This is Novak Djokovic's draw, so best of luck to everybody else. The other seeded players in this quad are Kei Nishikori (7), Tsonga (9), Simon (14), GGL (22), Seppi (28). The only guy who has a decent chance of beating him is Kei. I doubt he'll even drop a set until he plays Tsonga in the round of 16.

Quadrant 2:
This is Fedsmug's draw. I think this is actually a tricky draw for The Great Smug. His second round match against Dolgo is tricky. Dolgo is a damn good but streaky player. He's got mad tools. If Fed gets through that he'll have Baby Fed in the third round. I feel like Baby Fed is primed for a good year, and will give Rog a match. I do tend to always favor the superior player when you've got two guys who have basically the same style, and so I would lean towards Fed in that matchup, but it's not an easy road. It could tire out the 34 year old a bit.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Berdych v. Kyrgios match in the third round. I might even be inclined to give Kyrgios the slight edge in that matchup, but I'll certainly reserve the right to change my mind. Cilic v. Bautista will also be a very interesting third round matchup. I'm a fan of Cilic so I'll be rooting for him, but Bautista is one of those Steady Eddie guys that will sneak up on you. Goffin v. Thiem is another very interesting third round matchup and will give us a look at two very solid younger guys. The winner of that match -- I'll go with Goffin -- gets the winner of Fed and Baby Fed. This is a tough quadrant.

Quadrant 3:
This quad gives us both the The Great Great Rafael Nadal (TGGRN) and Stan the Man. I think you gotta like one of those two guys to come out of this, and I am leaning towards TGGRN, though he definitely has a relatively tricky first round matchup against Verdasco. If he gets through that, though, I see him having a relatively smooth path through to the quarters.

Stan should have a relatively easy time in the first two rounds, but then has an interesting potential matchup against Jack Sock (jizzrag) in the third round. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the jizzrag take on Taylor Fritz in the first round, but more from the perspective of seeing how well the young young American holds up. I think the jizzrag makes it through to the third round and could possibly give the Stanimal everything he can handle and more. Don't sleep on the jizzrag. If Stan makes it through that match, he is looking at a very interesting match against my favorite player Milos Raonic. I think Rafa will take out the winner of that match.

Quadrant 4:
I think this is probably the easiest quad and a really good draw for Andy Murray. I do think that, like Rafa, he has a tricky first round match. Alex Zverev is a baller and will play him tough. If Murray gets through that, though, where is his next challenge? His second round match will be relatively easy and I don't see him getting much of a match until he potentially gets Bernie Tomic. But of course with Bernie Tomic, there's never any guarantee that he'll live up to his end of the deal.

The upper half of this quad just does not strike me as particularly scary. Could either Stevie Johnson or John Isner make it out to the quarters. I don't think you can rule that out completely. I think DuhVEED is on the back nine of his career and is certain susceptible to an upset. I like the winner of the bottom half of this quad to make it through to the semis.