The 2019 Grand Slam season begins on January 14 with the Australian Open to be held in Melbourne.
A vast variety of tournaments will be held over the next fortnight including men’s singles, women’s singles, doubles for men, women and mixed as well as the wheelchair competition along with numerous exhibition events. The total purse over all events is a whopping $62.5 million in the 107th edition of Australia’s Grand Slam.
The top two seeds in the Men’s draw Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are both setting their sights on a record seventh Australian Open title and after the release of the draw during the week, won’t face each other until the final on Rod Laver Arena, should they both win their lead up matches.
Top seed Djokovic will begin the tournament against a qualifier before a potential second round match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – a replay of the 2008 final, some 11 years ago now. The road to the final could also encounter the likes of Kei Nishikori and Alexander Zverev.
Federer, the defending Australian Open champion will start his campaign against Denis Istomin and may also feature Marin Cilic and Rafael Nadal. The ‘GOAT’ is in search of a third consecutive Australian title. He and Djokovic have won the past four Australian Open’s.
Across to the Women’s draw and strangely the top seed Simona Halep is virtually given no hope with the punters marking her as a $20 chance. It looks likely that she will face seven-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams in the fourth round. Williams missed last year’s tournament after the birth of her daughter Alexis and looks to be a serious contender in 2019.
It is a very open ladies draw with Angelique Kerber the second elect. Halep hasn’t had an ideal preparation leading into the tournament. She is winless in over four months, has no coach after splitting with Darren Cahill and lost her only match in 2019 to Australian Ash Barty.
Andy Murray made headlines today when he broke down during his press conference. Murray has had an interrupted past 2-3 years as a result of a recurring hip injury and suggested that retirement looms after Wimbledon, if not sooner.
An emotional Murray said that he is playing and training through a lot of pain and that an end point was fast approaching. The five-time runner up fought back tears and has received amazing support from players and supporters across the world since.
The Sporting Base predictions:
Mens Champion – Roger Federer
Womens Champion – Serena Williams
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