Novak Djokovic will aim for a record 25th Grand Slam title at this year’s Australian Open, starting on Sunday, with Andy Murray as coach at the first Major of the post-Rafael Nadal era.
Djokovic, 37, widely considered the perfect tennis player, is just one step away from 100 career titles. Lifting the trophy at Rod Laver Arena on January 26 would mean one in four titles would be a Major.
The 2024 season has not been the best by the Serbian’s high standards. He ended a successful partnership with coach Goran Ivanisevic. He suffered a serious knee injury at Roland Garros. He could make the final of the only Major – a straight-set loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.
As he has done throughout his career, he managed to flip the script when it mattered most to him. A little more than a fortnight after this defeat against the young Spaniard at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Djokovic brought the best version of himself to find the feat that was missing from an already impressive record: winning the Olympic final for end the career in gold. Slam.
It was almost poetic that his opponent was Alcaraz and the venue – Roland Garros.
Winning Olympic gold for Serbia took the weight off Djokovic’s shoulders and he enters 2025 with a fresh mind. He spent 10 days of pre-season with Murray, a three-time Major champion who lost four Australian Open finals to the Serbian, and said: “He has a unique perspective on my game as the one of the biggest rivals I’ve had. . He knows the pros and cons of my game.”
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Losing to Reilly Opelka, a big-serving American, in Brisbane won’t bother Djokovic or Murray, who wasn’t in the box, much. Melbourne will be the first big test for the rivals-turned-allies.
Standing in Djokovic’s path to what appears to be his best chance at Slam No. 25 are Jannik Sinner and Alcaraz, the two players who have made a real case for being “the big two.”
Sinner dismantled 10-time champion Djokovic in Melbourne en route to his first Major last year. The Italian, who appears to be a younger version of the Serbian with his nimble footwork and strong groundstrokes, also won the US Open as well as the ATP Finals. Despite a doping scandal that shocked the tennis world and has yet to come to fruition, Sinner finished the season as world number one with an incredible win-loss record of 73-6.
Three of Sinner’s six defeats came against Alcaraz, Spain’s next great hope after Nadal. Alcaraz, 21, beat the Italian at Indian Wells, Roland Garros and Beijing. The maverick from Murcia took his Grand Slam tally to four following triumphs in Paris and Wimbledon, but he also suffered a stunning dip in form on several occasions.
Starting this year, Alcaraz has three chances in Melbourne to break Nadal’s record of being the youngest man to complete the Career Slam (winning all four Majors at least once). Will he strive to be more consistent with less risky decision-making on the field or continue to back his mercurial instincts to win in Melbourne?
A potential quarter-final against seventh-seeded Djokovic looms for Alcaraz while Sinner is in the other half of the draw.
Sabalenka and the three peats
Three years ago, Aryna Sabalenka couldn’t rely on one of the most fundamental elements of sport to win matches: serving. She has committed a worrying average of 7.78 double faults per match in 2022. However, she has been a major force at every Grand Slam since fixing that element of her game with the help of a biomechanics coach in 2023.
An extremely athletic player with powerful shots capable of taking the racket out of an opponent’s hands, Sabalenka is the clear favorite in Melbourne as she bids to become the first woman since Martina Hingis (1997-99) to claim three titles at the ” Happy Slam.” .”
Coco Gauff is the main threat to Sabalenka’s attempt to complete a hat-trick. The American beat Sabalenka to win the 2023 US Open.
At just 20 years old, Gauff understands what she needs to further improve her game. She demonstrated this by beating Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-4 to help the United States win the United Cup. With the help of new coach Matt Daly and Jean-Christophe Faurel, Gauff adjusted his serve and forehand grips during the offseason, which was reflected in his impressive victory against the Pole.
Gauff and Sabalenka are in the same half of the draw and could face each other in the semi-final.
For Swiatek, nothing went as planned after her third consecutive title at Roland Garros in 2024. She was only able to win a bronze medal despite being a big favorite for the top spot on the podium at the Paris Olympic Games. She parted ways with her coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, lost her No. 1 ranking to Sabalenka and also faced a month-long suspension for a positive doping test.
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Her partnership with new coach Wim Fissette is a work in progress and for the first time the Pole, despite being second seed, may not be a title contender. Swiatek’s half of the field includes Italian Jasmine Paolini, who had her breakout season in 2024 with second-place finishes at the French Open and Wimbledon, and former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
Rybakina, a finalist in Melbourne in 2023, enters this year’s edition with off-field controversy surrounding her. She hired Ivanisevic as her new coach after ending her partnership with Stefano Vukov. But she recently announced that she had rehired Vukov to her team. Vukov is provisionally suspended by the Women’s Tennis Association pending an investigation into a possible violation of its code of conduct.
The investigation against Vukov was launched last year after the WTA received complaints about his intense and harsh behavior. Under suspension, Vukov can neither train Rybakina nor enter the training grounds or the players’ box.
Whether this issue affects Rybakina’s performance on the court could decide the runner-up in the bottom half of the women’s section.
