Djokovic is chasing his sixth title after beating Andy Murray in last year’s final, while Williams, battling a knee injury, is after her seventh Australian crown.
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For someone who was the only man to beat world number one Novak Djokovic in a grand slam in 2015, Stan Wawrinka was indifferent about the attention on the feat heading into this year’s Australian Open.
Last 5 Australian Opens: ’15-Won title, ’14-Lost in 4th Round, ’13-Lost in Quarterfinal, ’12-4th, ’11-Did Not Play.
The month of January annually welcomes the Australian Open in Melbourne, and the first Grand Slam event of the year is drawing big ticket demand on the secondary market for its 2016 installment in Melbourne.
They have one thing in common, though: they’re both favorites to win again, having each won three of the four majors in 2015. He won the 2014 Australian Open junior title at Melbourne Park, so has happy memories of this tournament.
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Mauresmo came back from maternity leave before Christmas to oversee Murray’s off-season training in Dubai and has been with him in Australia since the end of December. She won only five matches from February through August, including first-round losses at the French and Wimbledon, before suffering a concussion that knocked her out of the US Open.
Agnieszka Radwanska (leg) and Petra Kvitova (illness) withdrew from other warmup tournaments and No. 9 Lucie Safarova announced early she wasn’t competing in Australia because of a bacterial infection. This means she is this Australian Open’s version of Victoria Azarenka. Williams is the 3/1 favourite, Sharapova 10/1 and Errani 250/1.
“I was like, ‘That’s not mine, ‘ ” Sharapova said. I’ve had to improve my game every single year.
“Everything is actually really well. Good feelings. Just trying to be ready”.
When she puts together a good run though, she is virtually unplayable, as her two Wimbledon titles attest.
“I didn’t have the match play that I’ve wanted to have”, she said.
Sharapova, the 2008 champion, said her restricted preparation was purely precautionary.
“Unless there’s some really young ones coming through that cause upsets, you can’t see any reason why she shouldn’t”.
Pressed on whether she could pull off the calendar year Grand Slam this year after so narrowly missing out, she also insisted: “I don’t think about it”. Williams then chose to take the rest of the season off. Her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said this winter that there is nearly no cartilage left in her knees.
While much was made of Serena Williams’ near miss of the Grand Slam, Djokovic was only one defeat from a flawless Grand Slam season, too. The seeded player nearest to Djokovic is Andreas Seppi, the Italian who defeated Federer in last year’s Australian Open.
“Hopefully I can keep playing that well”.
“But we’ll see. I never really plan that far in advance”. “One thing you can control is your serve”.
The Serbian star has been the talk of Melbourne heading into the Australian Open, which gets underway on Monday, but while the likes of Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka have talked down his form, Nadal has admitted he will be hard to beat.
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Giorgi, the world No. 35, is the highest-ranked player Williams could have faced in the first round. He’ll start off with talented but still raw South Korean teenager Hyeon Chung, before then facing either Croatian veteran Ivan Dodig or French wildcard Quentin Halys.
