A Look at the Australian Open

It's that time of the year again.. Yes, it's time for the first Grand Slam of the year again and the start of yet another tennis season as long as Anna Chakvetadze's braid before last year.











The first Grand Slam has usually thrown up some unexpected results given it is so far away from the peak of the tennis season. It is also the toughest Grand Slam to pick out of the 4 as well as being probably the hottest Grand Slam of the year - Wimbledon, Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows certainly don't get up to the 35'C heat Melbourne experiences at this time of the year.



Of course there are always the home favourites with Sam Stosur being the obvious one for the ladies - although she has just crashed out to the Romanian Sorana Cirstea, continuing a woeful run at home this summer while Bernard Tomic has recently emerged as possibly Australian best men's player since the glory days of Mark Phillipoussis, Leyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter.

In fact on day one, he pleased the massive Monday afternoon crowd with a huge win over 22nd ranked Fernando Verdasco. A good run to the quarterfinals would do Tomic's career a world of good given the dominance of Djokovic, Nadal, Federer and Murray at the moment.

Dominance isn't a word that can be used to describe women's tennis at the moment though. With injuries to the Williams sisters and even world no. 1, Wozniacki, it's really anyone's guess who will win the Australian ladies' title.

Kvitova is possibly the form women's player at the moment but questions still remain about her consistency - should she prove the doubters wrong on that front, she could be on course for a second Grand Slam title.

The women's game desperately needs someone to take charge of a quite average generation. Wozniacki could still do it but she needs a grand slam win.. soon.



So my tips..

Men's Final - Novak Djokovic to beat Andy Murray

Women's Final - Caroline Wozniacki to beat Li Na