The return of the super mums
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Serena Williams won the 2017 Australian Open while eight weeks’ pregnant,and there will be a baby theme in 2024,too:past winners and former world No.1s Naomi Osaka,Caroline Wozniacki and Angelique Kerber are back after each taking a break to have children.
In Wozniacki’s case,the 2018 Melbourne Park titlist intended to stay retired after bowing out of the 2020 event in Melbourne,but after becoming a mother of two,she caught the tennis bug again and resumed playing in August,going on to make the fourth round at the US Open.
Dual champion Osaka gave birth to her first child in July,while 2016 victor Kerber did the same five months earlier.
Expectations should be tempered for Osaka and Kerber,in particular,given they have not played since late and mid-2022,respectively. But,equally,you should never count out greats of any sport.
Gen Next might be Gen Now
You may have heard it before,about how the latest batch of young guns are poised to dethrone the incomparable Novak Djokovic – but there is more substance this time.
Djokovic is still the best player on the planet,and largely invincible at Melbourne Park,where he is a record-setting 10-time champion.
The 36-year-old’s 28-match winning streak at the Australian Open started in 2019. However,in Carlos Alcaraz,Jannik Sinner andeven Holger Rune,Djokovic finally has some competition.
Alcaraz has won two of his five meetings with the super Serb,most notablya five-set classic in this year’s Wimbledon final,which delivered the 20-year-old a second slam title.
Sinner,22,doesn’t have one of those yet,but has reached at least the last eight at every major and just beat Djokovic twice in barely a week,at the ATP Finals thenthe Davis Cup semi-finals (after saving triple match point).
Rune,also 20,joins the other two in the top 10 and is a triple slam quarter-finalist who defeated Djokovic twice in five clashes,with the 24-time major champion needing to go the distance in two of his wins.
Battle for No.1 (and the prodigy chasing them)
Iga Swiatek has mostly been the woman to beat since her Australian nemesis Ash Barty retired for a second time,not even two months after winning her home grand slam in 2022.
However,there are holes in the four-time grand slam champion’s resume – and one of them is her lack of an Australian Open trophy.
Swiatek’s only once gone beyond the round of 16 in Melbourne,and she briefly lost her No.1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka,whose standout 2023 campaign includedwinning the Australian Open in January.
Swiatek snatched top billing back off the Belarusian in her WTA Finals triumph,and will hope to finally conquer the Melbourne Park surface,but Sabalenka looms large.
World No.3 Coco Gauff,the only teenager ranked in the top 40 on the WTA Tour,is another contender after hergrand slam breakthrough at the US Open,where she chased down Sabalenka to win.
The Demon is arising
No player,Australian or not,has more closely resembled Lleyton Hewitt than Alex de Minaur,whose never-say-die attitude and extraordinary wheels have helped him carve out a very successful career.
In fact,de Minaur just had his best season yet,winning his maiden ATP 500 title in Mexico and reaching hisfirst Masters 1000 final in Toronto (losing to Sinner) to achieve his career-best ranking of No.11.
Australia’s Davis Cup spearhead put histop-10 goal on the radar last summer.
What de Minaur does not have is Hewitt’s grand slam record. The final frontier for the 24-year-old is changing that,given he has just one major quarter-final to his name,at the COVID-19-impacted 2020 US Open.
One thing is certain:the fiercely competitive de Minaur,who made the last 16 at the past two Australian Opens,will leave no stone unturned to find a way.
Chance to witness a new Aussie star
It is no secret that Australia’s female tennis stocks are flagging behind their male counterparts in Ash Barty’s retirement,especially with Ajla Tomljanovic and Daria Saville enduring injury-hit campaigns this year.
However,there is reason for hope. Kim Birrell,aged 25,who has suffered her own injury misfortune,made her top-100 debut in 2023,while Olivia Gadecki,21,is on the verge of a double-digit ranking herself and won a round at this year’s Australian Open.
The one to watch might be former top-10 junior Taylah Preston,18,who hasscored a wildcard into next month’s grand slam. Preston’s ITF title triumph in Perth last month catapulted her to the cusp of the top 200.
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Talia Gibson,19,and current top-10 junior Emerson Jones,15 – daughter of champion triathlete Loretta Harrop – are others showing promise.
In the tradition of the likes of Tomljanovic,Saville and Jarmila Gajdosova,another teenager,Melisa Ercan (18),switched allegiances to Australia from Turkey this year.
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