Based on rankings… here is how the tournament will play out

Novak Djokovic -1

Rafael Nadel – 2

Roger Federer – 3

Dominic Thiem – 4

Daniil Medvedev – 5

Stefan Tsitsipas – 6

Alexander Zverev – 7

As we know, Roger is not even in Australia so he will not be competing for the tournament.. One would think that Novak’s ranking of 1 could easily play out in the tournament with him bringing it home. He has already won it 8 times! For someone to beat him it will need a combination of him not playing at his highest level, plus someone like Nadal, Thiem or Medvedev taking the game out of his hands. It’s going to be fun to watch, especially with the interesting build up due to COVID.

The womans rankings are currently as below –

1 – Ashley Barty

2 – Simona Halep

3 – Naomi Osaka

4 – Sofia Kenin

5 – Elina Svitolina

6 – Karolina Pliskova

( Serena is back at number 11).

Looking at these rankings we can be sure that a few of the ladies will be around to the later rounds of the tournament… but given how wide open the woman’s game has been over the last few years it is very hard to pick a winner. Ash Barty has a good preparation in that she has not had to quarantine… but she has not played Tennis most of 2020 due to staying in Australia. Simona Halep is always hard to beat when she is on her game… but if anyone is seeing the ball like a football like Iga Swiatek did at the French, then the game can be taken away from her. Naomi Osaka is definitely one to watch. She has been the most consistent of the woman in Grand Slams over the last few years and it seems that as she gets on in her career and the stage is bigger, she holds up and rises under pressure, just like at the US Open last year. It’s just so hard to pick a winner though… we have Serena who could finally break her snap of losing streaks in Grand Slam Finals.. or who knows.. Iga Swiatek might back up her win at the French Open last year and prove she is the real deal.