Tomic, Azarenka move into top 16 in Australian Open seedings

The tournament gets underway on 18 January in Melbourne.

The world number one is the firm favourite to scoop the title at Melbourne Park next week – where he has five wins from five finals – and to start his bid for a flawless win record in 2016.

Eyres said that teaming with World Vision had helped to amplify the campaign, with views of the Novak Djokovic Headband for Good video already exceeding one million in the region.

But Djokovic won five of their eight matches last season, including the most important, in the finals of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

The 28-year-old Scot has been seeded second at this year’s event, as he aims for his third Grand Slam title. One of two former champions, Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka, could be his semifinal opponent. Watson, who will drop from her current position at No55 in the world rankings on Monday after failing to successfully defend her title in Hobart this week, will take on the hard-hitting Hungarian Timea Babos, who won their most recent meeting in Cincinnati last summer.

Tellingly, his rivals talk more about Djokovic failing to reach top form than the standard of their own performance when asked how to get the better of the Serb. His intentions are clear.

Williams played one set at the Hopman Cup, where she was hampered by inflammation in her left knee. With the top women’s ranks wracked with injury and illness, the two-time Grand Slam champion’s resurgence couldn’t come at a better time.

His straight sets demolition of Nadal in this month’s Qatar Open final was praised as “perfection” by the Spaniard and Djokovic admitted seeing the ball “as a watermelon”.

Melbourne Park has been a happy hunting ground for the American 21-time major victor.

“Everything is actually really well”.

The key thing for Murray is to back himself to go for the down the line shot that is so potent and a good bellwether of how confident he is feeling.

British second seed Murray is drawn to meet Spanish terrier David Ferrer in a quarter-final in the bottom half of the men’s draw. I think. I’m not sold but that’s where I’m leaning right now. Djokovic trumped Williams, however, by playing in all four grand slam finals.

World number two Simona Halep (achilles), Garbine Muguruza (foot), Agnieszka Radwanska (leg) and Maria Sharapova (forearm) have all been battling niggling problems that forced them out of warm-up tournaments. The 10-time Grand Slam victor has defeated Nadal in the last nine of their 10 matches. However, his record is just 6-5 in the Basel finals.

She added: “I know what I need to do on and off the court to win big tournaments”. “I know nobody playing tennis like this ever”.

At the time of her retirement in Perth, Williams said: “I just have some inflammation that’s been going away very slowly”.

Tomic believes Raonic’s victory over Roger Federer in the final of the Brisbane International will give the younger brigade an injection of belief that they can compete with the best – other than Djokovic.