Australian Open 2023: Five burning questions featuring Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek, Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz

The 2022 season may feel like it has only just finished (probably because it has), but the 2023 Australian Open is just 50 days away.

Yes, the first Grand Slam of the new season is drawing close. In a month players will start touching down in Australia ahead of the inaugural United Cup, which starts on December 29. There are then a few warm-up events before the action starts in Melbourne on January 16.

Rafael Nadal will be the defending men’s champion while world No. 1 Iga Swiatek will have her eyes on the women’s title, which was won by the now-retired Ashleigh Barty this year. Novak Djokovic will also be back in Australia after the federal government overturned his visa ban.

With 50 days until the first ball is hit at the first Grand Slam of the 2023 season, we pick out five burning questions ahead of the tournament.

Djokovic's return to Melbourne is going to be interesting, to say the least.

He has been the king of the Australian Open over the last decade, winning the title seven times since 2012, but he is unlikely to get a royal welcome next month.

The controversy over Djokovic’s entry into Australia earlier this year stirred up plenty of frustration and anger among Melburnians. There was outrage that Djokovic had been given a medical exemption to play at the tournament despite being unvaccinated, while Australia had endured some of the world’s longest lockdowns and strictest travel restrictions.

Even though Djokovic had his visa cancelled and was deported, what happened won’t be forgotten.

Djokovic has always had plenty of Serbian support in Melbourne and they will stick with him, but the majority of fans may not be so generous in their backing.

If there’s one person who is used to dealing with partisan crowds, though, it’s Djokovic. He has faced - and beaten - Roger Federer in Wimbledon and US Open finals when the crowd has been loudly rooting against him. He has rarely – if ever – had more fans on his side when he has taken on Federer or Nadal. At times in his career Djokovic has appeared to thrive in negative atmospheres, but will that be the case in Melbourne or might the occasion prove too much?

He has been playing fantastically to finish 2022, winning three tournaments, including the Nitto ATP Finals, and going 18-1. If he continues the form he has shown over the last couple of months and handles any outside noise then he should be the favourite to win a 10th Australian Open title.

Barring injury, Swiatek will be the outstanding favourite to win the 2023 Australian Open.

She has just completed one of the most impressive seasons in history, winning eight titles, including two Grand Slams, and pulling waaaay clear of everyone else in the rankings. She will start the new season with a 6,000-point lead over world No. 2 Ons Jabeur and, after some time away to relax and recharge, will be thinking about how she can get even better.

"There is still a lot of work, challenges and learning, that’s for sure and I’m excited about it,” she said after losing in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals.

Can Swiatek possibly repeat her breathtaking 2022 form or will she come back to the pack a bit? It will be a big challenge with so many titles to defend across the year, but in Australia she has the chance for improvement after making the semi-finals of the Adelaide International and Australian Open earlier this year.

Jabeur appears the best of the rest and showed she can be a threat on hard courts with her run to the US Open final. Caroline Garcia should be full of confidence after capping off a comeback year with victory at the WTA Finals, and Maria Sakkari and Aryna Sabalenka both seemed to find some form in Texas too. Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff could also be contenders at a tournament that has seen two American women make the semis for the last two years, and an American champion in Sofia Kenin in 2020.

But can anyone stop Swiatek adding a fourth Grand Slam title to her quickly-growing collection?

Nadal has proven several times over the last 12 months that it’s foolish to write him off. At the Australian Open he won in remarkable fashion despite missing the last four months of 2021 due to injury. The French Open he won despite doubts over if he would even play due to a foot problem. And at Wimbledon he reached the semi-finals despite questions over whether he could still challenge on grass.

So it would be silly to suggest that Nadal won’t win the 2023 Australian Open, but fair to say it looks like a difficult challenge right now.

Nadal finished this season with a win over Casper Ruud at the ATP Finals to avoid a fifth straight singles defeat. He said he was not surprised by his results having been trying to recover from an abdominal injury that hampered his hard-court summer, but there will clearly need to be an improvement if Nadal is going to contend in Melbourne.

“The only thing that I can do is just keep working, keep doing the things that I need to do to give myself a chance to start with real chances in 2023,” he said in Turin.

“Couple of positive things: I was able to play two tournaments in the last three weeks, something that I was not able to do it for a while. I don’t think I forget how to play tennis and how to be strong enough mentally; I just need to recover all these positive feelings and all this confidence and all this strong mentality that I need to be at the level that I want to be.”

Nadal has looked some way below his best level in recent weeks but even at the ATP Finals he did show some improvement. There were doubts over whether he would play his last group match having already been eliminated, but he thought he needed the time on court and he looked good in beating Ruud in straight sets.

He will be getting more court time with Ruud over the next few weeks as the pair travel around South America for five exhibition matches. If that helps build fitness and Nadal is healthy for Melbourne then with his experience and fighting qualities he could go far again.

Similarly to Nadal, Alcaraz's form and fitness are under the spotlight heading into the new season.

The world No. 1 didn't scale the same heights after his stunning US Open victory, losing to David Goffin on his return to the tour in Astana and going down in straight sets to Felix Auger-Aliassime. He then missed the ATP Finals after suffering an abdominal injury at the Paris Masters.

It has been reported that Alcaraz won't play any competitive events before the Australian Open as he looks to get back to full fitness.

That means he will have to play his way into form at the Grand Slam, where he came close to pulling off a big upset earlier this year as he rallied from two sets down to push seventh seed Matteo Berrettini to five. This time around he will be the top seed and he has admitted there will be more pressure on his shoulders.

Alcaraz certainly has the game to be a contender in Melbourne, but might the 2023 Australian Open come a bit too soon?

If he is 100% healthy then a second meeting with Djokovic would be one of the most hotly-anticipated matches of the tournament.

Naomi Osaka and Dominic Thiem have both enjoyed previous success at the Australian Open.

Osaka is a two-time champion in Melbourne and has played some of her best tennis at the tournament. But she’s had a difficult 18 months on and off the court, and is now ranked at No. 42 in the world. The last trophy she lifted was the 2021 Australian Open.

It has been noted that Osaka has not posted anything tennis related on social media since the US Open, and the only tournament she played since then was the Japan Open, where she withdrew from her second-round match with injury. Martina Navratilova has said “time is running out” for Osaka and has questioned whether she still loves tennis.

If she can rediscover some of her best form in Melbourne might that set the tone for a comeback year?

Thiem, who made the 2019 Australian Open, is in a different position to Osaka.

He has been working his way back from a wrist injury and recently has shown promising signs of improvement. It’s probably too much to expect him to go far at the Australian Open but if he has a strong off-season then he could be a dangerous name in the draw.

--

Stream the 2023 Australian Open live on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk