Preview of Australian Open: Djokovic and Osaka defend their titles, 6 of our tennis players start the tournament

The start of the first Grand Slam of the season is approaching, and the draw for the whole tournament took place on Wednesday night. The defending champions are Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka. Will Djokovic even be able to play? Who are the other favourites for the title? Who will our tennis players face in the opening round?

Will Djokovic defend his title?

Novak Djokovic will be the biggest male favorite to win the title. In case of a successful defence, he would reach his 21st Grand Slam title and would leapfrog Nadal and Federer in this historical table. But his start at the Australian Open is still uncertain.

In order to be allowed to participate, he has to convince the local authorities that he could not be vaccinated for health reasons. If he fails to do so, he will be deported from Australia and the tournament will be without its defending champion.

His fate should be decided within the next 24 hours. He is expected to face compatriot Kecmanovic in the first round. We will know soon whether this match will take place or not.

Daniil Medvedev will also have big ambitions. The Russian tennis player fulfilled his Grand Slam dream last year, becoming the US Open champion. He will have the same goal at the Australian Open. He has almost no competition on the hard surface, he should be in the battle for the title. He will start his journey with a match against Laaksonen, where he will be the clear favourite.

We mustn’t forget Alexander Zverev. Last year was a very successful year for the German great. He won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and won several other valuable titles (Acapulco, Madrid, Cincinnati, Vienna, Tournament of Champions). He also succeeded in Grand Slams, which were not going well for him for a long time.

He seems to have matured and is ready to achieve a grand slam triumph. The Australian Open should show if he is really capable of it. He will face the German Atlmaier in the first round. Zverev should not have the slightest difficulty in this derby, a sovereign progression is a must in his case.

The Czech Republic’s best hope is Jiri Vesely

The only Czech who is certain to participate in the tournament is Jiri Vesely. The Czech number one will face Kozlov and will be the favourite for this match. Veselý is in good form in the beginning of the season and should be able to take this match and advance further.

Tomas Machac and Jiri Lehecka also have a chance to start in the main part of the tournament. However, both tennis players have to pass the final round of qualification, which will be played on Thursday night.

A golden hat trick for Osaka?

Among the women, Naomi Osaka will be the defending champion. The Japanese won this tournament for the second time in her career and achieved her fourth Grand Slam triumph. She confirmed that the Australian Open is one of her favourite tournaments ever. Last year, she had major mental problems that caused her to miss the second half of the season. So there is a big question mark over her current form. She’ll face Colombia’s Osorio in the first round, which is an unpleasant draw to start with.

Ashleigh Barty will be the next big contender to win the title. The Australian tennis player did very well last year. She won Wimbledon and added four more tournament titles. Thanks to these achievements, she remains the world number one. At the Australian Open, she surprisingly dropped out in the quarterfinals, losing to Karolina Muchova.

This time, she will definitely aim higher. She has been in great form since the beginning of the season, winning the title in Adelaide. She’ll be under a lot of pressure again. If she can handle these expectations better than in recent years, she can attack the domestic title and the third Grand Slam of her career.

The home hopeful will have to wait for the name of her first round opponent, she will face a qualifier.

Sabalenka will definitely have title ambitions as well. The world No. 2 is one of the best that women’s tennis has to offer. She has already won 10 titles in her career, but the Grand Slam still eludes her. The closest she came was at Wimbledon last year, but her journey through the tournament ended in the semi-finals.

She will be one of the big favourites for the first Grand Slam of the season. However, it is necessary for her to improve her performance, as her form at the beginning of the year has been very poor (losing to both Juvan and Peterson). If she doesn’t improve quickly, even advancing to the second week will be a superhuman task for her. In the first round she will face the home team Sanders, it will already be a certain test of the Belarusian’s performance.

And what about our tennis players?

Our women’s tennis will be represented six times. Karolína Plíšková and Karolína Muchová will not participate in the tournament, both tennis players had to withdraw due to health problems.

The best hope should be Barbora Krejcikova. For the Moravian tennis player, last year was like a dream come true. She sensationally won Rolland Garros, the Olympic doubles and the Tournament of Champions, moved into the top 10 in the rankings and is currently the fourth player in the world. So this season will be even harder for her than the last one. It will be hard for her to defend her position as she is defending a large number of points.

She will also be under a lot of pressure from the media, the fans will have high expectations. It’s not going to be easy to take it all in stride. She’s done well so far in the early part of the season, which is a positive. She has already reached the semi-finals in Sydney and can try to win her fourth career title.

In the first round of the Australian Open, she will face Petkovic. It will be an interesting test of her true form.

Petra Kvitova will go into the tournament as our number two. The two-time Grand Slam champion has been struggling a lot in the last few months and her game is not good at all. Last season was not good at all, she dropped out very early in the Grand Slams. The start of this season is not ideal either (loss to Honova).

Kvitova has nothing to lose in this tournament, she can only surprise. The fate is not in her favour at all, she will play Cirstea in the first round. A very difficult start at the beginning.

Markéta Vondroušová, on the other hand, is in a good playing condition. The Czech won silver in the Olympic singles last year and her performance has been on the rise since then. She is back in the top 50 in the rankings. Her career seems to be heading in the right direction.

In the first round Vondroušová will face a match against the home team Honova, advancing to the next round should be a must. Last year she reached the eighth round, with a certain constellation of stars she can positively build on this success.

For other Czech players, any significant tournament success would be a big surprise. Martincova, Siniakova or Bouzka cannot be counted on to advance to the second week of the Grand Slam.

Interesting matches of the 1st round:

Source: Tenisportal.cz, Australian Open, Twitter