Aussie Open could see Federer-Djokovic clash

Murray is bidding to clinch a third grand slam title of his career and his first in Melbourne.

Friday’s draw for the opening grand slam of the year was relatively kind for Murray in the early stages and if he plays as well as he did in the second half of last year, then he should be relatively untroubled until the last four.

The Australian Open draw revealed that number one seed Serena Williams could face a challenging path to winning her seventh title at the competition this year.

“I’m at 120, 130 per cent right now”, Williams said. Had to pull out of the Hopman Cup in Perth due to left knee soreness to start the season, but has practiced in Melbourne and organizers say she is fit.

“I felt like I had already played too many matches last season and that I needed some time to regroup and recuperate, spend time with my family, do something else and just recharge for another long season”, said Djokovic, who lives in Monte Carlo. “It feels good”, said the 34-year-old.

According to Centre Daily William’s has won the Australian Open six times previously (’03, ’05, ’07, ’09, ’10, ’15), boasts five singles titles in 2015, and 69 career singles titles.

Court added: “It’s not easy to win Grand Slams, it’s probably easier today than when we were playing, we had wooden rackets, we had to travel 10 months of the year, we played every week, we couldn’t take family with us, we couldn’t take any masseurs, we didn’t know any of that, we played with injuries”.

Rafael Nadal also has a decent record at Melbourne Park, having won the title once and finished runner-up twice.

“Obviously getting to play him a couple of weeks ago was good. I am sure that the rest of the players wants the same as me”. “It’s no secret who you’re going to be playing”. A tough draw, for certain. She won only five matches from February through August, including first-round losses at the French and Wimbledon, before suffering a concussion that knocked her out of the US Open. Two, she has never made it past the third round here. She is the only player to reach at least the quarter-finals in both tournaments she entered.

Sharapova takes on Japan’s Nao Hibino in the first round. Her match with Williams in the Wimbledon quarterfinals was considered one of the best of 2015.

“It will be a tough match”, Murray said.

He troubled the Serb in the opening two sets of last year’s final, but then slumped dramatically to a 7-6 6-7 6-3 6-0 defeat.

The Australian should be a familiar face to British tennis fans as he was a member of the Australian Davis Cup final team that travelled to Glasgow last September. Best result at the Australian Open was reaching the 2003 final, when she lost to sister Serena, one of eight times the siblings have met in a major final….

Melbourne:World number ones Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were named the top seeds yesterday for next week’s Australian Open with organisers aligning with the current rankings. The man-boy-from Hamburg, Germany is ranked 83rd in the world, which makes him the highest-ranked under-20 professional in the top 100 men globally. Now the question is, can Nadal, owner of 14 major titles, even win one more? Can Williams overcome injury to repeat her historic quest that captured the attention of the sporting world and culminated in her being named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year?