The 109th edition of the Australian Open kicks off at 1 a.m. on Monday. A tournament to be followed every night on Eurosport! But the question of the fortnight obviously concerns Djoko. Will he manage to win a ninth title? Not so sure…
–
The last Grand Slam tournament to have escaped the Covid-19, last year, returns this year with a disturbed edition, of course, but with nearly 30,000 spectators in the stands daily. Which still represents half of the attendance of previous years. On the other hand, on the side of the players it was more complicated. With the quarantine in their hotel rooms of more than 70 players from the four corners of the world… as is the habit on the circuit. And this is not a whim of the organizers. Cases of Covid having been declared on board a few planes, the Australian authorities found themselves with hundreds of contact cases including these tennis players and tenniswomen. Who, it must be remembered, were unable to train for a week.
A ninth victory for Djoko?
In short, the tournament begins as planned on the night of Sunday to Monday. And apart from the notable absence once again of Roger Federer, the tray is provided. With first and foremost the world n ° 1 and title holder Novak Djokovic, who with his eight titles is practically unbeatable in Melbourne, but also Rafael Nadal (n ° 2) who curiously managed to bring back the trophy only once on the four finals in which he participated. Among the big outsiders of this we will note Alexander Zverev (n ° 7) and Dominic Thiem (n ° 3) in the same half of the table as Djoko and Stefanos Tsitsipas (n ° 6) and Daniil Medvedev (n ° 4) in that of Nadal. Note that last year Dominic Thiem almost created a surprise in the final by taking two sets… but no.
On the French side, the draw was offered to Jeremy Charly the chance to face the world No. 1 entry, as Gilles Simon facing Tsitsipas. For Gaël Monfils it should do it until the eighths where he should meet the Serbian, unless Jeremy has done the job before! A first round not easy either for Pierre Hugues Herbert who is opposed to Fabio Fognini against whom it is never easy to express himself fully. As for the French, no luck either for Caroline Garcia who will find Naomi Osaka (n ° 3) in the second round. Good night to amateurs …
The program
Monday February 8
01h00: Australian Open live on Eurosport 1 & 2
–
–
