Emma Raducanu ‘having a blast’ as she battles to victory in first match in eight months
The Australian Open draw takes place tonight with a number of enormous names lurking dangerously as unseeded gamers, together with Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray.
World No 1 and 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic is the highest seed within the males’s draw whereas Iga Swiatek is the highest seed within the ladies’s draw, with defending champion Aryna Sabalenka seeded second and newly topped US Open champion Coco Gauff third.
4-time ladies’s grand slam champion Naomi Osaka may draw an enormous identify as an unseeded participant after making her comeback, having given beginning to her first daughter, Shai, final summer season. There will probably be no return for 22-time males’s grand slam champion Rafael Nadal, nevertheless, after he was pressured to withdraw from the opening grand slam of the 12 months as a result of a contemporary hip damage.
From a British perspective, Raducanu and Murray are additionally unseeded forward of the draw. Raducanu has been granted a spot in the primary draw as a result of her protected rating after lacking eight months of final season following wrist and ankle surgical procedures, whereas Murray simply misses out following a dip in type to finish final season and will probably be hoping for a sort draw as he returns to Melbourne Park.
Observe the Australian Open 2024 draw beneath in tonight’s reside weblog
Australian Open draw LIVE: Murray, Raducanu and extra study destiny
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Australian Open draw LIVE
Iga Swiatek hoping ‘peaceable’ preparation results in Australian Open success
Iga Swiatek has discovered how to deal with the strain of being world primary and hopes a modified mindset will assist her dominate ladies’s tennis beginning with the Australian Open after she closed off a difficult 2023 with a restful off season.
The 22-year-old Pole was the driving pressure on the ladies’s tour in 2022 when she loved 37 consecutive wins earlier than briefly shedding prime spot within the rankings to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka following a shock last-16 exit on the US Open.
Nonetheless, regardless of two accidents, Swiatek completed prime for the second 12 months in a row, helped by profitable her first WTA Finals trophy on the season-ending occasion in Mexico in early November.
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 22:25
Australian Open draw LIVE
Emma Raducanu and Andy Murray are amongst seven British gamers who’ve secured direct entry into the Australian Open.
Cameron Norrie is the one seed whereas Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage are in the primary draw on rating for the primary time.
Right here, we take a look at the British contenders.
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 22:05
Australian Open draw LIVE
Australian Open odds – ladies’s winner
Qinwen Zheng, Ons Jabeur 25/1
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 21:45
Australian Open draw LIVE
Australian Open odds – males’s winner
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 21:25
Australian Open draw LIVE
The Australian Open prize cash is at a document excessive for 2024 following a 13 per cent enhance of £5.34m (AU$10m) from 2023.
The entire prize pool now stands at £46.2m (AU$86.5m), with the lads’s singles and girls’s singles champions taking residence round £1.67m (AU $3.15m) for profitable the match.
Prize cash has additionally been elevated within the early rounds, with gamers who attain the primary draw incomes £64,000 – even when they don’t win a match on the match.
Defending champion and document 10-time Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic is as soon as once more the favorite for the lads’s title, whereas World No 1 Iga Swiatek and newly topped US Open champion Coco Gauff would be the prime contenders for Aryna Sabalenka’s crown within the ladies’s singles.
Right here’s every part you could know.
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 21:05
Australian Open draw LIVE
Australian Open 2024 match schedule
Sunday 14 January: Spherical 1, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Monday 15 January: Spherical 1, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Tuesday 16 January: Spherical 1, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Wednesday 17 January: Spherical 2, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Thursday 18 January: Spherical 2, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Friday 19 January: Spherical 3, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Saturday 20 January: Spherical 3, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Sunday 21 January: Spherical 4, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Monday 22 January: Spherical 4, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Tuesday 23 January: Quarter-finals, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Wednesday 24 January: Quarter-finals, males’s singles, ladies’s singles
Thursday 25 January: Semi-finals, ladies’s singles
Friday 26 January: Semi-finals, males’s singles
Saturday 27 January: Ladies’s singles closing
Sunday 28 January: Males’s singles closing
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 20:45
Australian Open draw LIVE
The Australian Open is across the nook with the primary tennis grand slam of the 12 months bursting with storylines to start out 2024.
Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka are the defending champions however all eyes will probably be on these making comebacks in Melbourne, with Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu returning to the massive stage after lengthy absences.
There will probably be no return for 22-time males’s grand slam champion Rafael Nadal, nevertheless, with the 37-year-old pressured to withdraw from the opening grand slam of the 12 months as a result of a contemporary hip damage.
4-time main champion Osaka returns having given beginning to her first daughter, Shai, final summer season, whereas Raducanu can be on the comeback path after the previous US Open champion was sidelined for eight months of final season as a result of wrist and ankle surgical procedures.
Djokovic, in the meantime, is aiming for a record-extending eleventh Australian Open title as he begins his bid for a golden slam, whereas the likes of Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff will probably be out to assert Sabalenka’s crown. Right here’s every part you could know.
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 20:15
Emma Raducanu pulls out of one other occasion forward of Australian Open
Emma Raducanu will now not participate within the Kooyong Traditional.
The previous US Open champion was set to tackle 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva within the Melbourne suburbs however will not be featured on Thursday’s schedule of play.
She withdrew from a charity match earlier within the week and was reported to have been feeling “sore” following observe on Monday.
Raducanu will proceed to organize for the Australian Open, which will probably be simply her second match again from wrist and ankle surgical procedure which decimated her 2023 season.
The Brit, presently ranked 299 however utilizing a protected rating for the primary grand slam of the 12 months, made her comeback in Auckland final week, shedding within the second spherical to Elina Svitolina.
Raducanu has had a raft of damage issues since her breakthrough win in 2021 and ended final week’s match with Svitolina with strapping on her proper leg.
The 21-year-old has since skilled at Melbourne Park forward of subsequent week’s match.
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 20:05
Australian Open draw LIVE
What are the seeds?
23. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
27. Felix Auger-Aliassime
30. Tomas Martin Etcheverry
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 20:03
Australian Open draw LIVE
What are the seeds?
17. Ekaterina Alexandrova
Jamie Braidwood10 January 2024 20:02