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Emma Raducanu will hope to start the new tennis season strongly as she faces Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 26th seed, in a challenging but winnable first-round match at the Australian Open after being unable to compete in the opening week of the season due to a back injury.
Since travelling to Melbourne, Raducanu has trained normally on the tournament grounds and has looked in good shape during her public training sessions. On Tuesday, Raducanu competed against the 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in a practice set on Rod Laver Arena, which she won.
Raducanu has been drawn into Iga Swiatek’s section of the singles draw and the pair could face each other in the third round. Swiatek, the No 2 seed, will begin her tournament against the doubles No 1 Katerina Siniakova.
This tournament will mark Swiatek’s first major event since being banned for one month after testing positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, which she successfully proved was a case of contamination with her melatonin medication. Swiatek has been handed a solid draw as she looks to win her sixth grand slam title.
British No 1 Katie Boulter, the 22nd seed, also appears in Swiatek’s bottom half, where she has been handed a favourable draw. Boulter will open her tournament against the big-serving Rebecca Marino of Canada and the highest-ranked player in her section of the draw is the 15th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia. Fresh off a career-best 2024 season and a brilliant performance against Swiatek in the United Cup, Boulter is seeking her first grand slam fourth round this week in Melbourne.
Aryna Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion and world No 1, heads the women’s draw as the tournament favourite and will face a blockbuster first-round match against 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens. Fresh off her Brisbane title, Sabalenka has now won 27 of her last 28 matches in Australia. Coco Gauff, the third seed and most in-form player on the tour, has landed in Sabalenka’s half. She also faces a tough opening match against another grand slam champion, 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin. 18 months ago, Kenin defeated Gauff in the first round of Wimbledon.
In the men’s draw, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are on a quarter-final collision course after being drawn as early as possible in the draw ceremony on Thursday in Melbourne. With Andy Murray beside him as coach for their first major tournament together, Djokovic will be looking to bounce back after a complicated 2024 season saw him win the Olympic gold he was desperate for but otherwise struggle for much of the season.
Having spent the first five months of 2024 as the world No 1, Djokovic arrives in Melbourne as the seventh seed, meaning he was actually drawn into the third seed Alcaraz’s quarter. As Djokovic faces the American youngster Nishesh Basavareddy and Alcaraz begins against Alexander Shevchenko, the pair have been drawn away from Jannik Sinner in the bottom half of the men’s draw, which is headed by the second seed Alexander Zverev.
Jack Draper, the British men’s No 1 and 15th seed, also appears in Alcaraz’s quarter. Draper, who like Raducanu was unable to compete in the first week of the season due to injury, will begin against Mariano Navone of Argentina and he is projected to play against Alcaraz in the fourth round. Draper has shown no signs of the hip injury he suffered during the off-season in his practice sessions this week, including in the competitive practice sets he played against Novak Djokovic on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.
After piecing together one of the greatest seasons of the 21st century in 2024, the defending champion and No 1 Sinner will start the Australian Open as the clear tournament favourite. He will first play against Nicolas Jarry, a big-serving Chilean, and the top four seed drawn in his half is Taylor Fritz.
Among the other British players, Cameron Norrie has been handed a tough first round match against Matteo Berrettini and the fast-rising 23 year-old Jacob Fearnley will be part of one of the most highly anticipated opening round matches in Melbourne as he tackles Nick Kyrgios in the Australian’s first grand slam match since the 2022 US Open.
In her first grand slam as a direct entrant, Sonay Kartal will play Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and a win could set up a second round match against Sabalenka. Jodie Burrage, meanwhile, will line up against a qualifier.
