The draw of the qualifying round of the first Grand Slam of the year Australian Open, starting from 18th January at Melbourne Park, has been released in Melbourne on Tuesday.

India’s no 1 Somdev Devvarman will face local James Duckworth in the first round of the men’s singles event of qualifying round of Australian Open. Somdev, world no. 161, will have easy outing against world no 1712 James in the opening round.

India young sensation Yuki Bhambhri , world no 330, will lock horns with 245th ranked Jan Minar of Czech Republic in the first round. Yuki will be encouraged to take on higher ranked opponent by his recent victory over 110th ranked Illya Marchenko of Ukraine in the Chennai Open qualifiers last week.

Prakash Amritraj will start his campaign with match against Andre Begemann of Germany. Prakash had played in US Open in 2002 through wild card entry while Somdev had made into second round of US Open last year through qualifying round.