This content was published 7 years ago. It may refer to a past edition of the Internazionali d’Italia.
The men’s draw for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia threw up some interesting first round matches, including four all-country affairs, but arguably the most mouth-watering encounter will be between Juan Martin del Potro and Grigor Dimitrov.
The men’s and women’s draws took place under the impressive Arco di Constantino, a triumphal arch which was built in 315 BC, on Friday evening. Current players Stan Wawrinka, Milos Raonic, Dominika Cibulkova, Roberta Vinci, Andreas Seppi and Deborah Chiesa were all in attendance as were Italian tennis legends Nicola Pietrangeli and Lea Pericoli.
World No. 1 Andy Murray will start the defence of his title against an Italian player after compatriots Fabio Fognini and Matteo Berrettini were drawn to play each other. Wawrinka, who is in the same half of the draw as Murray, will play his opening match against the winner of the all-French encounter between Nicolas Mahut and Benoit Paire.
Germany has assured itself of at least one player in the second round as Florian Mayer takes on Philipp Kohlschreiber, while David Ferrer will be hoping he can get the better of countryman Feliciano Lopez and claim his 700th ATP Tour victory.
Tommy Haas, 39, and Ivo Karlovic, 38, will be setting a milestone of their own when they play as their first round meeting will be the oldest ATP match since Vina del Mar in 1982 when 30-year-old Ricardo Cano defeated Luis Ayala, 49.
Nadal and Djokovic, who have met in the final here on four occasions, have been drawn in the same half this year. Nadal will face either home hope Andreas Seppi or a qualifier in his first match while Djokovic will be up against the Italian wild card Gianluca Mager or a qualifier.
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