The 2024 Australian Open begins on Sunday and it is already shaping up to be a fantastic event on both the men’s and women’s sides. Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the tournament, but Carlos Alcaraz’s triumph at Wimbledon last summer and Jannik Sinner’s late-season hot streak indicates that Novak Djokovic may be challenged Down Under. Meanwhile, Naomi Osaka made her comeback to tennis last week in Brisbane and looks poised to return to her Grand Slam-winning ways.
Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion and now a tennis channel analyst and Betway correspondent, recently weighed in with his thoughts on the upcoming festivities at Melbourne Park. Roddick thinks Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev are among those who could make life difficult for Djokovic.
“Novak Djokovic is a clear favorite in the men’s and I’m not going to pick against him, but Carlos Alcaraz can certainly give people problems on this surface,” Roddick said in an interview with sports betting site Betway. “People overlook the fact that he hasn’t seen this venue in over two years, and a lot has happened for him during that time. Back then, he went into the offseason with his body looking like a kid’s and came back looking like a man.”
“We also tend to take Alexander Zverev for granted while gravitating towards new and shiny things. He’s a guy who, coming off a broken ankle last year, looked understandably horrendous in Australia (in 2023), but somehow snuck into the [Nitto ATP] Finals and made the semis of a slam again. He has beaten all the top guys.”
Alcaraz struggled a bit down the stretch last season after losing to Djokovic in the Cincinnati Masters final, but the second-ranked Spaniard did well to reach the semifinals in Turin. Zverev is off to a great start in 2024, as he led Germany to the United Cup title.
Osaka, Raducanu on the comeback trail
In the women’s Australian Open draw, two of the biggest names in the sport will be unseeded. Osaka, a four-time major champion, missed the entire 2023 season due to the birth of her first child. The 26-year-old was given a wild card for the first slam of 2024. She warmed up for the Aussie Open by playing in Brisbane, where she defeated Tamara Korpatsch in straight sets before losing to fellow former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.
“If I’m Osaka, I got what I needed out of Brisbane,” Roddick commented. “To win a match and play a tough three-setter, now you can let the body reset a little bit. I love everything that I’m seeing and hearing out of the Osaka camp, especially her saying that she’s going to play a very full schedule, as that’s the only way to get that match rhythm back where it doesn’t feel like a new experience.
Tennis would sure be a lot more fun if she was making deep runs at slams again.”
Raducanu, who has direct entry into the Aussie draw, “seemed healthy and recovered” (according to Roddick) last week in Auckland. The 2021 U.S. Open winner beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 and then lost to Elina Svitolina 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-1.
Comeback incomplete for Nadal
Also on the comeback trail, Nadal won’t be joining Osaka and Raducanu in Melbourne. The 37-year-old Spaniard won two matches in Brisbane but felt pain in his surgically-repaired hip during a quarterfinal loss to Jordan Thompson–albeit in a different area.
Nadal is not yet ready for three-out-of-five-sets competition, but he figures to be back up to speed for the clay-court swing. That’s when it really matters in Roddick’s opinion.
“Hopefully this is a minor setback,” Roddick opined. “I think the Australian Open was always more of a hurdle in the way of getting to the French Open, which is probably the one that he hopes and thinks he can still do some damage at. I’ll be curious to see if he adds any hard-court events along the way, or just circles that beginning of April and Monte Carlo as the lift-off point.
“As an athlete, you just want to have a semblance of control over the way that you decide to finish, and I hope that Rafa gets that.”
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