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With Christmas done and dusted for another year, this can only mean one thing – the 2018 Australian summer of tennis is just around the corner.
Some of the world’s biggest tennis names have started ramping up their preparations ahead of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, the Australian Open.
As always, this preview will be divided into three parts: in Part 1, I covered the Brisbane International, the Hopman Cup and the Shenzhen Open.
Here, in Part 2, I will cover the Maharashtra Open, the Qatar ExxonMobil Open and the ASB Classic, while Part 3 will cover the Sydney International, the Hobart International and, of course, the Australian Open.
Let’s take a look at some of the events that tennis fans will be treated to as the countdown begins to the start of the Australian Open on January 15.
Maharashtra Open
1-7 January
Defending champion: Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP)
Drawcards: Marin Cilic (CRO), Kevin Anderson (RSA), Robert Bautista-Agut (ESP).
Previously known as the Aircel Chennai Open, this tournament has switched homes, and adopted a new name, moving from Chennai to Pune and being renamed the Maharashtra Open.
Defending champion Roberto Bautista-Agut returns to the tournament, as does top seed Marin Cilic and last year’s surprise US Open finalist, Kevin Anderson.
They are the only three top-20 players in an otherwise relatively weak player entry list, with the eighth seed, Jeremy Chardy, currently ranked 78th in the world.
Cilic is coming off another solid season which saw him reach the Wimbledon final, which he lost to Roger Federer in straight sets, and reach a career-high ranking of world number four before settling for a year-end ranking of sixth after going winless at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.
Again expectations are high for the Croat in the early part of the season as he seeks to add to the lone US Open title he won in 2014.
Anderson enters the new year on the back of a breakthrough 2017 which saw him, at the age of 31, reach his first major final at the US Open where he was soundly defeated by Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
As such, all eyes will be on both Cilic and Anderson with their world rankings, and seedings for this tournament, meaning they are projected to meet in the final should they perform as expected and get this far.
(Photo: WIki Commons)
Qatar ExxonMobil Open
January 1-8
Defending champion: Novak Djokovic (SRB)
Drawcards: Dominic Thiem (AUT), Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP), Novak Djokovic (SRB), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA), Tomas Berdych (CZE).
It was not that long ago that Novak Djokovic stood on top of the tennis mountain.
The Serb was at the peak of his powers, becoming the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four major titles simultaneously when he finally broke his French Open curse in June 2016.
But since then, it has been all downhill for the 30-year-old, who will launch his playing comeback in Doha having been sidelined since Wimbledon due to an elbow injury which had been bothering him for the previous 18 months.
The six-time Australian Open champion enters the new year ranked 12th, his lowest year-end ranking since 2006, and will be hoping to use this tournament as a launching pad to rocket back up the top of the world rankings.
He is joined in the field by two-time French Open semi-finalist Dominic Thiem, as well as US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta, crowd favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych.
Thiem is the top seed at the tournament, but could strike either Djokovic or Tsonga in the semi-finals should he get this far, meaning the world number five will have his work cut out for him.
(AFP PHOTO / PAUL CROCK)
ASB Classic
January 1-7 (women), January 7-13 (men)
Defending champions: Jack Sock (USA) and Lauren Davis (USA)
Drawcards: Caroline Wozniacki (DEN), Julia Goerges (GER), Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), Jack Sock (USA), Juan Martin del Potro (ARG), Sam Querrey (USA), David Ferrer (ESP).
Strong fields in both the men’s and women’s player entry lists should again attract large crowds to New Zealand’s only tennis tournaments in 2018.
After a couple of lean years which followed her ascent to the top of the rankings in 2010, former world number one Caroline Wozniacki enters the new year on the back of a confidence-boosting finish to last year, in which she claimed the biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals in Singapore.
The 27-year-old won the title by defeating Venus Williams in the final, overturning a lopsided head-to-head record (0-7 in matches played and 1-15 in sets won) in the process.
She is joined in the field by WTA Elite Trophy winner Julia Goerges, as well as 2013 champion Agnieszka Radwanska, who after being a mainstay in the top ten for many years crashed to a year-end world ranking of 28th in 2017.
Defending champion Lauren Davis also returns, as does Croatia’s Donna Vekic, the girlfriend of three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka who pushed Johanna Konta to her absolute limits at Wimbledon earlier this year.
Top-ranked American Jack Sock returns to defend his title, while he will be joined in the men’s field by former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, Wimbledon semi-finalist Sam Querrey and veteran Spaniard David Ferrer.
For the men, this will be their last chance to fine-tune their preparations ahead of the Australian Open, with Sock and del Potro among those expected to feature deep in the tournament.
That’s Part 2 of your guide to the 2018 Australian summer of tennis. Part 3 will cover the Sydney and Hobart Internationals, and of course the big one – the Australian Open.
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