The tennis season kicks off at the start of the year down under, starting with the ATP Cup in Sydney, then three ATP 250 tournaments all on hardcourt and spread around Australia in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. Then in Mid January, it’s straight into the first grand slam of the year – The Australian Open. Let’s look at 2023 Australian Open Favorites.

ATP Structure

In tennis, everyone has their favorite tournaments. Some prefer the hardcourt season, and others will favor clay or tournaments in their respective country, but there certainly is no shortage to choose from. But in the tennis world, there are four tournaments a year that count the most, and we’re talking grand slams. But let’s not take away from the rest of the tennis calendar, as there is more to play for throughout the year:

ATP Finals

The Nitto ATP Finals is the year-end climax of the ATP Tour season. The event features only the world’s best eight qualified singles players and doubles teams and is contested in a round-robin format, with the best four players and doubles teams reaching the knockout semi-finals stage. After grand slams, it’s the second-highest-ranking tournament with 1,500 points up for grabs.

ATP Masters 1000 

Tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series’ events have been held in Europe and North America since the inception of ATP Tour in 1990, and also in Asia since 2009

ATP 500

The ATP 500 series is 13 tournaments, with 500 ranking points for the events’ singles champions.

ATP 250

250s are the entry-level ATP tournaments and are a series of 39 tournaments around the world, with 250 ranking points awarded to each singles champion.

Grand Slams

There are four annual Grand Slams, the Australian Open in January, the French Open at the end of May to early June- June, Wimbledon in late June to early July, and the US Open in late August to early September. But we’re here to talk about the first on the list.

The Aus Open dates back to 1905, known as the Australasian Championships. The tournament was renamed the Australian Championships in 1927 and only became the Australian Open in 1969. Since its beginning in 1905, the tournament has been staged in Melbourne, Sydney 17 times, Adelaide15 times, Brisbane 7 times, and Perth 3 times. But since 1972, Melbourne has been the home of the Australian Open.

The Aus Open was played on grass until 1988, when it moved to its permanent home in Flinders Park. Since then, it has been played as a hardcourt tournament.

2023 Australian Open Favorites

The two biggest questions for the 2023 Aus Open are:

Is that Novak Djokovic going to be allowed play? The official line from tournament director Craig Tiley is, “Novak Djokovic would be welcomed to play at the Australian Open if he can obtain a visa.” If he plays, the nine-time Australian Open winner would be the hot favorite, but as he’s unlikely to play, this blows the tournament wide open.

Is Rafa Nadal going to be fit and injury free? Last year’s winner will likely be the favorite if the answer is yes. It will be tough to beat the Spaniard if he’s fully fit. The current GOAT has limited time to win more grand slams, so he will put everything into the 2023 grand slams.

Current world number one, the 19-year-old superstar Carlos Alcaraz will come in hot after his US Open win. Or will he suffer the much-talked-about first slam lull? It often happens when players fail to follow up on that first big success. However, we firmly believe that Alcaraz has what it takes to win many slams. The best tennis betting sites have him as the second or third favorite, but we’re placing him as a joint favorite with his fellow Spaniard Rafa Nadal.

Another player to watch out for is Daniil Medvedev. The Russian must be very hungry for his second grand slam by now. He’s had a quiet run since his first grand slam win at the US Open in 2021. His surgery last year and failure to win big tournaments have made him drop the ATP rankings. However, Medvedev has already tasted a grand slam win and is more than capable of beating anyone on the ATP Tour, so we think he’ll be a contender in 2023.

Challengers

Casper Ruud will be looking to avenge his loss to Alcaraz at the US Open, and the Norwegian comes off the back of enormous success over the last two years. He has proved that he can make grand slam finals, and if it weren’t for Alcaraz, he would be world number one right now. We think it’s only a matter of time before he wins a slam, and Australia could be his chance.

Jannik Sinner has proved he can go pound-to-pound with any top player, so he’s a serious contender. 

And after his best year ever, we can’t have a conversation about favorites for the first grand slam of the year without mentioning Nick Kyrgios. He is on home turf and may be more motivated than ever to taste grand slam success finally.

There you have it. We are placing the current greatest tennis player of all time – Rafa Nadal, and the best player in 2022 – Carlos Alcaraz, as joint favorites at the 2023 Australian Open.