Stan Wawrinka is the fourth seed at the 2017 Australian Open. The champion from the 2014 event certainly does not have a difficult draw ahead of him in the early rounds. To open the tournament he'll face Martin Klizan, a player that didn't look great in Chennai last week. That should be a win for the 'The Stanimal' and his chances in both the 2nd and 3rd rounds look pretty good, too.
Wawrinka's projected draw
Wawrinka shares a draw to the third round with Steve Johnson, a player that is in fact playing well right now. However, Johnson is also in the Auckland draw this week and, at time of writing, he was still alive in that tournament.
By the time the Australian Open draw starts, it's very possible that the American will be fatigued and in need of rest. That in turn gives Wawrinka an edge to make the third round at least.
Wawrinka shares a draw to the fourth round with Viktor Troicki. However, the two players had a recent meeting, one that the Swiss player won in straight sets. Troicki is also active this week still as he is deep in the ATP Sydney draw. Like Johnson, Troicki stands to be tired when the Aussie starts, and that's to Wawrinka's advantage, a player that enters the tournament following a week off.
Wawrinka, Kyrgios could meet in fourth round
Nick Kyrgios and Wawrinka could be on a fourth-round collision course. The Aussie played well at the Hopman Cup last week, he has a really cushy opening-round draw in Melbourne Park, and he made the quarterfinals there in 2015.
If Kyrgios and Wawrinka both survive to the fourth round, then their match-up promises to be one of the highlights of the middle round to start the 2nd week.
But truthfully the match-up is one that could be dangerous for Wawrinka. Despite holding a higher ranking than Kyrgios, the Swiss is only 2-2 against the Aussie. They have never played in a Grand Slam tournament before, so how a best-of-five match will go isn't clear.
However, it is clearly Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, who is more proven in the format.
Any match-up between Wawrinka and Kyrgios will always draw a little bit of extra attention. That's due to what happened in Montreal during the 2015 season, when Kyrgios commented on Wawrinka's girlfriend's sex life during an active match.
It's one of the incidents in Kyrgios' career that has given him a poor reputation. The matter may be history for both players, however, certainly, fans and commentators alike will be less keen to let it die. A fourth-round showdown between Wawrinka and Kyrgios appears to be a sort of subplot in the overall story of the 2017 Australian Open.
