Why it's a big 2023 tennis season for Andy Murray, Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Ons Jabeur and Stefanos Tsitsipas

The 2023 season is coming fast.

The inaugural United Cup starts across Australia on December 29 as part of the run-up to the Australian Open, which gets underway on January 16.

Plenty of players will be eager to put 2022 behind them and change their fortunes next season, while others will be hoping to build on what they did over the last 12 months.

But which players look as though they need a big season?

This feels like it could be an important year for Andy Murray.

The former world No. 1 showed some encouraging signs in the first half of 2022 as he reached finals in Sydney and Stuttgart. But Murray wasn’t able to build serious momentum; after Sydney he was beaten in the second round of the Australian Open by Taro Daniel and after Stuttgart his Wimbledon hopes were damaged by an abdominal injury. Post-Wimbledon there weren’t too many positive results and the season finished with a surprising admission that Murray was disappointed in his physical level.

“I think just the reality is I need to work harder,” he said after losing to veteran Gilles Simon in Paris.

“From an endurance perspective that's something that, for a large part of my career, I kind of pride myself on – being there right to the end of the matches, and being able to maintain a high level physically. I haven't done that at all since…well, in any of the tournaments since Wimbledon really, except New York. That needs to change. The last few months, from that side of things, have been really, really disappointing. It's my fault. It's my responsibility."

Now 35, Murray is ranked at No. 49 in the world and has not managed to achieve of his goal of getting into the seeded positions for Grand Slams. That could mean more tough draws ahead and he has admitted his career might be over if he suffers another big injury.

Whether four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka can get back to the top of the game has to be one of the biggest questions heading into 2023.

Osaka has not played her very best tennis since her most recent Grand Slam victory at the 2021 Australian Open. She withdrew from the 2021 French Open due to mental health issues and then had the Olympics in her home country of Japan, which she said was a lot of pressure.

Osaka showed signs of returning to form when she reached the Miami Open final earlier this year, but she finished with a 14-9 win-loss record and is ranked at No. 41 in the world.

It’s not clear whether Osaka will get back to Grand Slam-winning level.

Martina Navratilova has suggested time is running out for her to do so, and there have been questions about whether Osaka is still totally in love with tennis.

Women’s tennis would be better off with Osaka in the mix at tournaments and challenging Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur for titles. Whether that happens in 2023 remains to be seen.

Not a year where Emma Raducanu has to necessarily go big, but one that feels important for at least consolidation. The 2021 US Open champion struggled with niggling injuries this year and wasn’t able to string together many matches in a row. She did show some bright spots, such as beating Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams in Cincinnati, and making the semi-finals of the Korea Open before having to retire with injury.

In a bid to improve the physical side of her game Raducanu has been working with Murray’s former fitness coach Jez Green. Murray’s endurance improved plenty during his time with Green, who has experience too with Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem.

Raducanu has also hired a new coach on a trial basis.

Former world No. 24 Barbara Rittner has described Sebastian Sachs as a “pretty down-to-earth guy” but has urged Raducanu to give him time, which she hasn't afforded any of her coaches so far.

Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem has been working his way back from a wrist injury and showed some encouraging signs over the second half of 2022.

At 29, Thiem still has time to be a force on the ATP Tour if he can get healthy and rediscover his best form, but this could be an important season for him.

He will be hoping to stay injury-free and build momentum with an eye on making a big move up the rankings when the clay swing arrives. Thiem said in October that he is hopeful he can challenge for the biggest prizes again in 2023, and with his huge ground game he would be a welcome addition to challenge the likes of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Daniil Medvedev.

“I have a belief that I can do it,” Thiem told AS when asked if he could fight for Grand Slams again. “If not, I would leave my career. I was at the top, in the top three of the rankings. And I do have the feeling that I am able to fight again for the big titles, for the Slams, and beat anyone. If not, all this hard work wouldn’t make sense to me.

"I hope that next year I can do it. I still have big dreams and I hope I can achieve them once again.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas appears to be at an interesting point in his career.

He recorded the most wins on the ATP Tour (61) in 2022 and has remained consistently towards the top of the game over the last few years.

At Grand Slam level he has now made four semi-finals and also the final of the French Open in 2021. He had a chance at getting to No. 1 at the Nitto ATP Finals but came up short.

The next step is proving a difficult one for Tsitsipas to take.

At 24 he still has time on his side, but he also has Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune, Jannik Sinner and others coming up fast. A first Grand Slam victory could be huge for Tsitsipas to show that he can beat the very best at the most important moments. Perhaps the Australian Open, where he has made the semi-finals in three of the last four seasons, will be his moment.

Ons Jabeur had a very good 2022 and finished as the best of the rest behind runaway world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

Jabeur made two Grand Slam finals – Wimbledon and the US Open – and won two singles titles.

It will be intriguing to see if Jabeur can continue to push Swiatek in 2023 and whether she can get over the hurdle of beating her in a big final. Both times the pair met in finals in 2022 it was Swiatek who won in straight sets.

Improved consistency will surely be on Jabeur’s wishlist too after several surprising losses this year.

If the world No. 2 can string together a few more solid tournaments in a row then she could be set for a big season and might win her first Grand Slam title. She missed this year’s Australian Open due to a back injury so has a chance to make a good start to the year by adding plenty of ranking points to her total in Melbourne.

Once tipped as a future world No. 1 by Brad Gilbert, there’s still a feeling that Madison Keys has not yet reached her full potential.

She has played great tennis at times and has made four Grand Slam semi-finals, including at the 2022 Australian Open. She showed just how good she can be when she beat Iga Swiatek in straight sets over the summer.

Yet Keys has also made only two finals since the start of the 2020 season. Can she kick on in 2023 and emerge as one of the challengers to Swiatek?

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