Only seven active Grand Slam champions have made it into the 2024 Australian Open draw. The tyranny of the ‘Big 3’, of Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer, has left almost no room for other tennis players to succeed in this top category. of tournaments since 2005.
On the women’s team, fourteen agreed, a sign of a greater opening of opportunities, especially in recent times without Serena Williams as a threat. In 2023 there were different wins in each of the ‘big’ events, when among the men Djokovic only allowed Alcaraz at Wimbledon.
Many of the champions did not even make it past the first round of this Australian Open. While waiting for the debut of Carlos Alcaraz, this Tuesday against Richard Gasquet at around 11 in the morning, Novak Djokovic, the only one who can maintain the victory in Melbourne, and Daniil Medvedev, who reigned in New York in 2021 but He lost two finals in Australia.
The severity of the injuries was evident in Britain’s Andy Murray, who found a solution to a career-extending hip prosthesis that he is now considering ending, especially after Tomás Martín Etcheverry was outclassed in the current Open . A former No. 1, Wimbledon and US Open winner, Australian finalist, who at age 36 is thinking of spending his last year.
Austrian Dominic Thiem, 29 years old, has not appeared again since a wrist injury that separated him from the elite. Champion of the US Open, finalist once in Melbourne, where he crashed this time after a five-hour marathon with Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Swiss Stan Wawrinka, the best at the 2014 Australian Open, and Croatian Marin Cilic, the surprising dominator of the US Open that year, also had their eyes closed. Both failed the initial screening this time.
Two former No. 1 mother and Australian and other Grand Slam champions are back after maternity break. No one made the cut. Japanese Naomi Osaka, 23 years old, was unlucky in a draw that paired her with powerful Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia. German Angelique Kerber, 35, did not beat another tough rival, American Danielle Collins.
There was a rivalry of champions, the current No. 1 Iga Swiatek survived the loss of American Sofia Kenin, the executioner of Garbiñe Muguruza in the 2020 final.
Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and the defending champion, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, continued in second place. All three of them can return to Australia. Other Grand Slam champions such as Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens and Barbora Krejcikova also qualified.
Emma Raducanu and Jelena Ostapenko are waiting for their turn. She bid farewell, as the first top-10 eliminated in Australia 2024, the current queen of Wimbledon, the Czech Marketa Vondrousova.
Source: La Verdad
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