The first Grand Slam of 2020 gets underway next month: the Australian Open. Last year’s men’s singles champion, Novak Djokovic, will look to defend his crown—and the latest odds on the Australian Open shine firmly on the Serbian. In the Open Era, Djokovic holds the record for the most singles titles won in Melbourne with seven. He will also be looking to add to his total tally of Grand Slams, which stands at 16—four behind Roger Federer and three back of Rafael Nadal.
At this early stage, who are the favorites for the men’s singles title?
Novak Djokovic
The 2019 season was a good one for Djokovic, who won two slams and reached the semifinals of the French Open. Disappointingly, he was knocked out at the fourth-round stage of the U.S. Open. Injury forced him to retire against Stan Wawrinka for his quickest exit in the final slam of the year in the last 13 years.
Now under the guidance of former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic will look to have a strong year to not only add to his accolades but to also regain the No. 1 spot from Nadal. The Spaniard recently overtook him in the ATP rakings and held on at the end of 2019. Djokovic’s record in the Australian Open is the best across all four major tournaments, having won 89 percent of his matches there and most memorably securing three successive titles between 2011 and 2013.
Rafael Nadal
There’s no doubt that Nadal has one eye on Federer’s record of 20 Grand Slam titles. With the King of Clay just one behind, 2020 could well be the year he dethrones the Swiss Maestro. The Australian Open has often thrown somewhat of a curveball in terms of his success, with just one title in Melbourne (2009) but four runner-up finishes—twice losing to Djokovic.
Despite injury doubts disrupting the initial part of 2019, Nadal went on to contest the Australian Open final as well as win two Grand Slam titles. He finished the year strongly and became world No. 1 again, and next season could prove to be another momentous one for 33-year-old.
Daniil Medvedev
This year started well for Medvedev and only got better thereafter. In Melbourne, he entered a Grand Slam as a seeded player for the first time and went on to reach the round of 16 for the first time in his career before losing to Djokovic. In September, he soared to No. 4 in the ATP rankings, his highest position to date. The 23-year-old Russian lost to Nadal in the final of the U.S. Open during a stretch of six straight final appearances. But the end of the season didn’t go to plan, losing his last four matches—including all three at the Nitto ATP Finals. Medvedev is one of a number of rising stars in the men’s game looking to win their maiden major. In an era in which the ‘Big 3’ are so dominant, who if anyone will be able to overhaul them?
What an amazing year it was💥 2019 gave me so many ups and downs, like The American swing I would have never even dreamt of and a poor end of the season, but see you soon 2020, will work harder 💪🏻🎾 pic.twitter.com/DUctZ1dqcI
— Daniil Medvedev (@DaniilMedwed) November 18, 2019
Roger Federer
The arguable Greatest of All Time has six Australian Open titles, with the last win in 2018. Failing to add to his tally of 20 Grand Slam titles in 2019, it’s no wonder that many believe Djokovic or Nadal could overthrow him at the top of the all-time list.
Last month Federer issued a statement confirming he wouldn’t play in any warmup tournaments in the lead-up to the Aussie Open, but he aims to compete in all four majors as well as the 2020 Olympics. Still ranked third in the world, it wasn’t a totally unsuccessful year for Federer as he captured four ATP titles (Basel, Halle, Miami, and Dubai). But at 38 years old, could it be the last time we see the Swiss ace grace the hard courts of Melbourne Park?
who ya got?
H’mm, I’ve heard that the court at RLA is now very similar to the one used for the WTF. Guess they’d like another Fed win there… Djoker of course is always a fave there IF he’s healthy. Rafa? Medvedev? We’ll see…
Slightly darker horses: Tsitsipas had a good run there last year. Cilic seems optimistic about a return to form. Thiem? Raonic?
Cilic ABSOLUTELY NOT
After his first very rusty match Rafa ended up playing some very good, creative tennis especially in his win over Tsitsi where he didn’t face a single break point. If Rafa can play like that on an indoor court then he can do some serious damage outdoors on a similar surface. He is really evolving his game to play more aggressive, coming to the net far more.
Great to see that he is #1 this year on return stats and #6 on serve above numerous players with much bigger serves.
Hoping for a great 2020 with the number of the year being the marker of slams he will have as wins….
#20 for #2020! And more to come…
Somehow Nadal has bad vibe there.. One way or another, it turns out heartbreaking loses. If not him, i hope Thiem wins
GOAT….don’t count him out down under!!!!
Djokovic will probably go in as favourite, and rightfully so. I think the surface is pretty good for Tsitsipas, I expect him to make a serious run.
Fed likes the surface but is just so inconsistent from match to match these days, he seems prone to let-downs after big wins. I think he has an outside chance here, but Wimbledon is a better opportunity simply because the young guns don’t play grass that well (yet).
Rafa can still play well enough to make a run here, although on fast surfaces he’s noticeably easier to attack than he used to be. I like Medvedev/Thiem for QF runs, but I think they definitely have better overall chances at the slower, more grueling USO.