The first four Grand Slam events gets underway on the courts of the National Tennis Centre in Melbourne Park on January 31st.
The best of the best will be on the blue courts trying to capture as many points as possible early on in the tour. We should expect Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal to be at the very top of the odds boards at the 2021 Australian Open. Between the two, nine of the last thirteen Grand Slams in Melbourne are split between them. Djokovic is an incredible 75-8 at the Australian Open and he’s perfect in the finals, 8-0 when makes it to the final match.
On the part of Rafael Nadal, he’s super consistent. In the past 15 years, he’s only missed the quarter-finals one time. Last season, the 34-year-old Spaniard racked up 9,850 points through 18 tournaments. He came close to getting another major event under his belt at the Nitto ATP Finals but was outdone by upland coming Russian tennis ace, Danil Medvedev.
Others that will surely sit near the top of the odds are No. 3 ranked Dominic Thiem, No. 4 ranked Danil Medvedev, and three-time Grand Slam champ, Stan Wawrinka.
Dominic Thiem is knocking at the door. He won the U.S. Open and last year he faced off against Novak Djokovic to five sets, nearly adding his first Australian Open win to his repertoire. The Russian, Daniil Medvedev, hoisted the trophy at the Nitto ATP Finals. This was the biggest win of his career and made even bigger by beating none other than Rafa Nadal to get the win.
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Both Thiem and Medvedev have a lot of momentum and coming into their peak years. However, Nadal and Djokovic are not done yet. Both still have a few years of championship-level tennis left. Speaking of a few years left, Roger Federer is on the list of field entrants in Australia. With mounting injuries at the tender age of 39, the Swiss champ only played in 16 tournaments in 2020. Still, he managed to rack up 6,630 points, which is good enough to displace Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev from the No. 5 spot. So, far, it looks like Federer won’t attend. Though it isn’t on account of his recent knee surgery, but the strict quarantine conditions.
However, the conditions make sense. Novak Djokovic did test positive back in June and then went into isolation in Croatia. Now, everyone seems to be in the clear, but precautionary measures are still needed.
Home court advantage
If there is one Aussie we the best in the field should be wary of, it’s Nick Kyrigios. In 2018, Krigios won in Brisbane but opted out of the remainder of the season following the COVID SARS-2 outbreak. So, the 25-year-old tennis star hasn’t been on the courts professionally since last year’s event in Acapulco. Other ATP Next Gen Finals faces, Taylor Fritz, Grigor Dimitrov, Felix Auger-Aliassime will also be dressed to impress in Oz.
What’s Different This Year
Officials elected to push the first Grand Slam of the season back just a hair due to the ongoing COVID outbreaks around the world. Instead of the middle of January, we’ll see balls raqueted on February 1st (technically, Jan. 31st).
The ATP has announced a revised schedule for weeks 8-13 of the 2021 ATP Tour season.
— ATP Tour (@atptour) December 29, 2020
Coming off one of the worst years in sports, 2021 could be a historic one –in a positive way. I believe this year we will see the Big 3 win at least two Grand Slams, and I do believe this starts in Melbourne. Thiem and Medvedev have a great shot, but Rafa and Novak are still the NOW generation. I also think that either Thiem or Medvedev win a Grand Slam, with perhaps a sprinkling of great play from some other younger players. Are you ready for the first Grand Slam of the year? We are!
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