Australian Open 2012 Draw: Why Men's Draw Sets Up Poorly for Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal was never one to do well at the Australian Open. After all, his only win came in consecutive five-setters against two incredibly tough opponents—Fernando Verdasco and Roger Federer.

But this year is going to be especially tough for him to pull off a big win or even make decent progress in the draw.

Citing nagging injuries in the recent weeks and a lack of motivation and drive since before the US Open, Rafa is going to have a new reason for going out early in this tournament—his great opponents and their performances.

Aside from facing a qualifier and (most likely) Tommy Haas in the first two rounds, his potential opponents have tremendous skill. The best players he could face are: Ivan Ljubicic, Feliciano Lopez, Nikolay Davydenko, David Nalbandian, John Isner, Nicolas Almagro, Stanislas Wawrinka, Kevin Anderson and Tomas Berdych—and that is all before the semifinals.

The giant killers who could truly take him out are Isner and Almagro, whilst Berdych definitely has a good shot of challenging him.

In the semifinals, should he make it that far, he could face Juan Martin del Potro, who looked just as good as ever when they faced off in their Davis Cup rubber, or Roger Federer, who can certainly beat Rafa on hard courts.

Overall, Rafa's recent play has been sub-par and if he hopes to improve to be able to beat Novak Djokovic, he is going to have to wait for the French Open because he is not winning this major and has to take a much-needed rest for him to heal.

Then, he has to practice and improve his backhand, serve and strategy, but I will save that for another article.

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