After an year of twists & turns last season,where people witnessed Rafael Nadal snatching the Wimbledon Crown from Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic capturing his maiden grandslam at AO & Federer fighting back after being diagnosed with mononucleosis by winning his 13th Grandslam & 5th consecutive US Open title defeating Andy Murray in his maiden grandslam final---The 2009 Australian Open begins in Melbourne,Australia from Jan 19-Feb 1.
World No.1 Rafael Nadal who became the first left-hander to finish No. 1 since John McEnroe in 1984 leads the draw followed by Roger Federer,Djokovic & Andy Murray of Britain.Nadal who won his 4th consecutive Roland Gaross & his maiden Wimbledon title, an Olympic gold medal last season stands favourite, but only second to No.1 favourite Novak Djokovic, as he isn't so dominant on hard courts as he had made only semifinal appearance at Australian Open(2008) in 4 tries & US Open(2008) in 6 tries, & has only won 7 hard court titles in his career so far.
Though World No.2 Roger Federer bounced back from a bout of mononucleosis by winning US Open, he hadn't performed up to his level since then, he lost in the semifinals of ATP Madrid Masters to Murray, in the RR of Tennis Masters Cup to Simon & Murray where he was 4 time champ,in ATP Doha again to Murray in the semifinals & therefore the 13 time grandslam champion stands 3rd favourite behind Nadal.If Roger Federer wins AO he will equal the all time record of Pete Sampras's 14 grandslam titles.
World No.3 Novak Djokovic the defending champion stands the favourite, he made to semifinals of French Open,US Open last year & has also won 3 titles - 2 Masters Series & the most prestigious year ending circuit finale Tennis Masters Cup and is just 10 points shy of displacing Federer from the No.2 spot.
Behind the Big Three, is World No.4 Andy Murray of Britain who stormed in to his first grandslam final at the US Open 2008 defeating Nadal in the semifinals in 4 sets.He also won 2 ATP Masters series, an exhibition event this year defeating Federer & Nadal in SFs, Final resp. & again won at ATP Doha defeating Andy Roddick.His recent success on hard courts poses a real threat to the top three & is definitely a joint favourite.
This year's Australian Open also includes a few young players, last year's AO runner up Jo-Wilfired Tsonga who surprisingly defeated Nadal in straight sets in the SFs also won the ATP Paris Masters defeating Nalbandian & ATP Bangkok defeating Djokovic, Gilles Simon, Juan Martin Del Potro, who made to the top 10 last year are capable of creating a few upsets.
Live telecast & previews of all the matches of Australian Open 2009 will follow.
Have a look at AO 09 draw .
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