The Spaniard, who won the tournament in 2009 and missed last year's opening Grand Slam through injury, faces a testing first round encounter against the world number 52.
In the draw made here today, Nadal was seeded to face Argentine fifth seed Juan Martin del Potro in the quarters.
Serbia's world number two Novak Djokovic, bidding for his fifth Australian crown and fourth in a row, was drawn to face Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the last eight.
Djokovic must first play Slovakia's Lukas Lacko in the opening round in the bottom half of the men's draw.
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Spanish third seed David Ferrer was drawn to face Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych in the other quarter-final.
Unseeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt was in Nadal's side of the draw and faces Italian 24th seed Andreas Seppi in the first round.