TENNIS: Andy Murray has drawn Andrei Pavel in the first round of the Australian Open. The world number four, who is chasing his first grand slam title and the first for a British man since Fred Perry in 1936 is in the same side of the draw as top seed Rafael Nadal.
Murray has successfully defended his Qatar Open crown and won the exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi already this year and comes into the tournament in Melbourne with victories against Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Roddick under his belt.
The 21-year-old will also be keen to banish the memories of his first-round exit last year at the hands of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, an eventual finalist.
The British number one has played Pavel once before at the US Open in 2005 where he took five sets to overcome the Romanian in the first round.
World number one Nadal will take on Belgian Christophe Rochus in his opening match at Melbourne Park, while Federer kicks off his chase for a record-equalling 14 grand slam title against Andreas Seppi.
Novak Djokovic begins the defence of his title against a qualifier, while 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez has a tough match against Australian Lleyton Hewitt, who is unseeded.
Men's Singles Draw (Seedings in brackets):
Rafael Nadal (Spa) (1) v Christophe Rochus (Bel)
Florent Serra (Fra) v Roko Karanusic (Cro)
Eduardo Schwank (Arg) v Tommy Haas (Ger)
QUALIFIER v Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) (29)
Richard Gasquet (Fra) (24) v Diego Junqueira (Arg)
Vincent Spadea (USA) v Denis Istomin (Uzb)
Guillermo Canas (Arg) v Nicolas Kiefer (Ger)
Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) v Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) (13)
Gael Monfils (Fra) (12) v Martin Vassalo Arguello (Arg)
Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) v Stefan Koubek (Aut)
Andrey Golubev (KAZ) v Fabio Fognini (Ita)
Nicolas Massu (Chi) v Nicolas Almagro (Spa) (17)
Ivo Karlovic (Cro) (25) v Daniel Gimeno-Traver (Spa)
Filippo Volandri (Ita) v Mario Ancic (Cro)
Chris Guccione (Aus) v Nicolas Devilder (Fra)
Pablo Andujar (Spa) v Gilles Simon (Fra) (6)
Andy Murray (Gbr) (4) v Andrei Pavel (Rom)
Teimuraz Gabashvili (Rus) v Marcel Granollers-Pujol (Spa)
QUALIFIER v Colin Ebelthite (Aus)
Kei Nishikori (Jpn) v Jurgen Melzer (Aut) (31)
Radek Stepanek (Cze) (22) v Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu)
QUALIFIER v Carsten Ball (Aus)
Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) v Arnaud Clement (Fra)
Adrian Mannarino (Fra) v Fernando Verdasco (Spa) (14)
James Blake (USA) (9) v QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER v Steve Darcis (Bel)
Albert Montanes (Spa) v Ernest Gulbis (Lat)
QUALIFIER v Igor Andreev (Rus) (18)
Rainer Schuettler (Ger) (30) v QUALIFIER
Victor Hanescu (Rom) v Jan Hernych (Cze)
Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) v Igor Kunitsyn (Rus)
Juan Monaco (Arg) v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) (5)
Andy Roddick (USA) (7) v QUALIFIER
QUALIFIER v Michael Llodra (Fra)
Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa) v Fabrice Santoro (Fra)
Sam Querrey (USA) v Phillip Kohlschreiber (Ger) (32)
Tommy Robredo (Spa) (21) v Bobby Reynolds (USA)
Alberto Martin (Spa) v Viktor Troicki (Ser)
Thomaz Bellucci (Bra) v Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe)
Marc Gicquel (Fra) v David Nalbandian (Arg) (10)
Robin Soderling (Swe) (16) v Robert Kendrick (USA)
Julien Benneteau (Fra) v Marcos Baghdatis (Cyp)
Simone Bolelli (Ita) v Kristof Vliegen (Bel)
Samuel Groth (Aus) v Mardy Fish (USA) (23)
Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) (28) v Jarkko Nieminen (Fin)
Taylor Dent (USA) v QUALIFIER
Jeremy Chardy (Fra) v Marcos Daniel (Bra)
QUALIFIER v Novak Djokovic (Ser) (3)
Juan Martin Del Potro (Arg) (8) v Mischa Zverev (Ger)
QUALIFIER v QUALIFIER
Potito Starace (Ita) v Bernard Tomic (Aus)
Gilles Muller (Lux) v Feliciano Lopez (Spa) (27)
Marin Cilic (Cro) (19) v Kevin Anderson (Rsa)
Oscar Hernandez (Spa) v Janko Tipsarevic (Ser)
QUALIFIER v John Isner (USA)
Denis Gremelmayr (Ger) v David Ferrer (Spa) (11)
Stanislas Wawrinka (Swi) (15) v Ivo Minar (Cze)
QUALIFIER v Brydan Klein (Aus)
Brian Dabul (Arg) v Philipp Petzschner (Ger)
Robby Ginepri (USA) v Tomas Berdych (Cze) (20)
Marat Safin (Rus) (26) v Ivan Navarro Pastor (Spa)
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spa) v Agustin Calleri (Arg)
QUALIFIER v Carlos Moya (Spa)
Andreas Seppi (Ita) v Roger Federer (Swi) (2)