Australian Open 2014: Prohibitive favourites and players with a point to prove

Lleyton Hewitt, Eugenie Bouchard, Samantha Stosur, Roger Federer, Victoria Azarenka, Rafael Nadal and Pat Rafter – it’s house full at the 2014 Australian Open!

The 2014 Australian Open will get underway on 13th January, and already the excitement is rising. Three of the current Big Four of men’s tennis will be coached by titans of the 1980s. Andy Murray has been working with Ivan Lendl for a couple of years now and that has dramatically turned around his fortunes, while Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer surprisingly announced Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg respectively as their coaches. Whether Becker and Edberg can turn around Djokovic’s or Federer’s fortunes remains to be seen, but the intrigue is palpable. With all this, let’s look at what might transpire at Melbourne Park over the course of the two weeks -

Prohibitive favourites:

Novak Djokovic – Djokovic is the 3-time defending champion and he ended 2013 with a massive 24-match winning streak. This is the part of the year when he operates at his best. The slow-medium hard court suits his aggressive baseline play. The winning streak also included two lopsided wins over his chief rival Rafael Nadal, and it basically sent a message to Nadal – “You may have taken my No. 1 ranking, but I still have your number”. Not surprisingly, he is the bookmakers’ pick to clinch his 5th Norman Brooks trophy, something that hasn’t been done in tennis history.

Djokovic has received what might be called a powderpuff draw, with David Ferrer the highest seed in his half (remember the semifinal blowout last year?!). But Stanislas Wawrinka looms in his quarter. And who wouldn’t want to see a rematch of last year’s fourth round encounter!

Rafael Nadal – Nobody expected Nadal to have the monster year that he had in 2013. Nadal laid to rest any demons and proceeded to dominate the field after missing the Australian Open in 2013 through injury. Like Djokovic, he is out to make history by becoming the only man since Rod Laver to win all the Slams twice. The only obstacle standing in his way is his tormenter-in-chief, Djokovic, who has basically owned this tournament the last five years. That said, the draw hasn’t been kind to Nadal this year, as Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro are all in his half, with del Potro looking like a possible quarterfinal opponent.

Andy Murray – Murray finds himself in a similar position to the one that Rafael Nadal did last year. He has just come back from a lengthy injury break after minor back surgery and is slowly getting back into the groove with match play. He just had an uncharacteristic loss to Florian Mayer in the Qatar Open, but that can be attributed to rust. Anybody who has reached the final in three of the last five Australian Opens (including last year) deserves to be among the favourites.

Murray’s draw until the quarterfinal is quite manageable. He might run into Roger Federer in the quarters, which, considering their current career paths, isn’t a very daunting task. Then he would possibly have to go past both Nadal and Djokovic to get his hands on his first Australian Open.