I think to determine who has a tough draw, no one should look further than the fourth round because everyone would expect the player on the other side on the net in the second week should be either a high rank player or a very in-form player. And every tennis fan should know the most vulnerable a top player will be is the first few rounds of a major. So that's no point of comparing draw from QF up.
I've done a small assessment on the draw and here's my opinion on which top 8 seed has the toughest draw(some prediction here as of who they'll play at a later round):
Federer
1st Hartfield
2nd Santoro
3rd Tipsarevic/Verdasco
4th Berdych
The only person I can see giving Fed trouble would be an inspired Santoro who's in his final year. But still no potential huge obstacle.
Gonzalez
1st Economidis
2nd Guccione/Lee
3rd Melzer
4th Blake
Gonzo has two tricky match up in Guccione and Blake. He'll have trouble getting through one of them with his form in the Kooyong Classic.
Djokovic
1st Becker
2nd Bolelli
3rd Tursunov
4th Hewitt/Safin/Baghdatis
In my opinion, Djoker has the most toughest draw out of the top 8. Apart from his second round match, all the other round can be a potential disaster, especially the fourth round, anyone of those three is very dangerous.
Ferrer
1st Roger-Vasselin
2nd Del Potro
3rd Stepanek
4th Nalbandian
He has a couple of quality players here in Del Potro and Stepanek, but the obvious one is Nalbandian even when he's under an injury cloud. I wouldn't count Nalby out until he officially withdraws.
Gasquet
1st Lindahl
2nd Lopez
3rd Andreev
4th Murray
Like Ferrer, a couple of good players in 2nd and 3rd round but the most important one is Andy Murray.
Davydenko
1st Llodra
2nd Acasuso
3rd Wawrinka
4th Youzhny/Karlovic
In-form Llodra can be tricky, but I really like the chances of either Youzhny or Karlovic of upsetting the 4th seed.
Roddick
1st Dlouhy
2nd Young
3rd Kohlschreiber
4th Robredo/Fish/Nieminen
I think Andy has an easy one here. The only one that may cause him trouble may be Fish.
Nadal
1st Troicki
2nd Mayer
3rd Simon/Clement
4th Moya/Mathieu
Nadal seems to have an easy draw as well, but with his history with AO, I suspect he can get upset by anyone from my 3rd and 4th round pick.
All in all, I think Djoker's section is the toughest no matter which top 8 seed you swap him with.
And here's my pick for quarter finalist:
Federer Vs Blake
Safin Vs Nalbandian
Murray Vs Youzhny
Roddick Vs Nadal
I've done a small assessment on the draw and here's my opinion on which top 8 seed has the toughest draw(some prediction here as of who they'll play at a later round):
Federer
1st Hartfield
2nd Santoro
3rd Tipsarevic/Verdasco
4th Berdych
The only person I can see giving Fed trouble would be an inspired Santoro who's in his final year. But still no potential huge obstacle.
Gonzalez
1st Economidis
2nd Guccione/Lee
3rd Melzer
4th Blake
Gonzo has two tricky match up in Guccione and Blake. He'll have trouble getting through one of them with his form in the Kooyong Classic.
Djokovic
1st Becker
2nd Bolelli
3rd Tursunov
4th Hewitt/Safin/Baghdatis
In my opinion, Djoker has the most toughest draw out of the top 8. Apart from his second round match, all the other round can be a potential disaster, especially the fourth round, anyone of those three is very dangerous.
Ferrer
1st Roger-Vasselin
2nd Del Potro
3rd Stepanek
4th Nalbandian
He has a couple of quality players here in Del Potro and Stepanek, but the obvious one is Nalbandian even when he's under an injury cloud. I wouldn't count Nalby out until he officially withdraws.
Gasquet
1st Lindahl
2nd Lopez
3rd Andreev
4th Murray
Like Ferrer, a couple of good players in 2nd and 3rd round but the most important one is Andy Murray.
Davydenko
1st Llodra
2nd Acasuso
3rd Wawrinka
4th Youzhny/Karlovic
In-form Llodra can be tricky, but I really like the chances of either Youzhny or Karlovic of upsetting the 4th seed.
Roddick
1st Dlouhy
2nd Young
3rd Kohlschreiber
4th Robredo/Fish/Nieminen
I think Andy has an easy one here. The only one that may cause him trouble may be Fish.
Nadal
1st Troicki
2nd Mayer
3rd Simon/Clement
4th Moya/Mathieu
Nadal seems to have an easy draw as well, but with his history with AO, I suspect he can get upset by anyone from my 3rd and 4th round pick.
All in all, I think Djoker's section is the toughest no matter which top 8 seed you swap him with.
And here's my pick for quarter finalist:
Federer Vs Blake
Safin Vs Nalbandian
Murray Vs Youzhny
Roddick Vs Nadal
