Murray faces French opponent in Australian Open

Andy Murray has been drawn to face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round of the Australian Open which starts next Monday.

The Scot, who won the season-opening Qatar Open on Sunday, is seeded ninth for the competition in Melbourne.

The 20-year-old will be hoping to emulate his achievements in 2007 when he was edged out by Rafael Nadal in five sets.

His French opponent will be making his second appearance at the tournament after being knocked out in the first round last year.

The 22-year-old Frenchman represents a tough first-round opponent for the British number one, however.

His first-round defeat last year was in four sets at the hands of Andy Roddick and he is currently ranked 38th in the world.

The pair have met on two previous occasions – Murray won last year in the last eight en-route to the final in Metz while Tsonga triumphed at a futures event in Nottingham in 2004.

Defending champion and top seed Roger Federer will start his bid to win his third successive Australian title against Argentinian Diego Hartfield who is making his tournament debut.

Second seed Nadal will take on a qualifier while third ranked Novak Djokovic faces German Benjamin Becker.

In the women’s draw, top seed Justine Henin will face Japan’s Aiko Nakamura and second ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova tackles Nathalie Dechy of France while Serena Williams will have to take on the home crowd when she launches the defence of her title against Australian Jarmila Gajdosova.