HOW THE LEADING MEN SHAPE UP FOR THE 2015 AUSTRALIAN OPEN
NOVAK DJOKOVIC (SRB)
Age: 27
Ranking: 1
Plays: right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money: $US72,444,493 ($A78.38 million)
Career titles: 48
Grand slam titles: 7 (Australian Open 2008, 2011-2013; Wimbledon 2011, 2014; US Open 2011)
Australian Open win-loss record: 43-6
Best Australian Open performances: champion 2008, 2011, 2012, 2013
The firm favourite after reclaiming the world’s top ranking during a superb 2014 campaign that yielded a tour-best seven titles, including a third straight year-end championship crown, and a staggering $US14,250,527 ($A15.42 million) in prize money.
ROGER FEDERER (SUI)
Age: 33
Ranking: 2
Plays: right-handed
Career prize money: $US88,691,538 ($A95.96 million)
Career titles: 83
Grand slam titles: 17 (Australian Open 2004, 2006-07, 2010; French Open 2009; Wimbledon 2003-07, 2009, 2012; US Open 2004-2008)
Australian Open win-loss record: 73-11
Best Australian Open performances: champion 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010
The Swiss master is showing no signs of slowing down, opening 2015 with success in Brisbane after collecting five titles last year and winning more matches in a single season than his most dominant days in 2006.
RAFAEL NADAL (ESP)
Age: 28
Ranking: 3
Plays: left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money: $US71,421,511 ($A77.28 million)
Career titles: 64
Grand slam titles: 14 (Australian Open 2009; French Open 2005-08, 2010-14; Wimbledon 2008, 2010; US Open 2010, 2013)
Australian Open win-loss record: 41-8
Best Australian Open performance: champion 2009
Melbourne Park hasn’t been the Spaniard’s happiest hunting ground and the former No.1 again enters the season-opening slam under a cloud after battling wrist and back injuries and undergoing surgery for appendicitis in October.
STANISLAS WAWRINKA (SUI)
Age: 29
Ranking: 4
Plays: Right-handed
Career prize money: $US14,475,073 ($A15.66 million)
Career singles titles: 8
Grand slam titles: 1 (Australian Open 2014)
Australian Open win-loss record: 23-8
Best Australian Open performance: champion 2014
The so-called “other Swiss” has well and truly established himself in the top echelon after maintaining his top-four ranking following last year’s breakthrough grand slam triumph in Melbourne and, like Federer, opening 2015 with title success.
KEI NISHIKORI (JAP)
Age: 25
Ranking: 5
Plays: right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money: $US8,052,759 ($A8.71 million)
Career titles: 7
Grand slam titles: 0
Australian Open win-loss record: 12-5
Best Australian Open performance: quarter-finalist 2012
Enjoying a career-best ranking after conquering Wawrinka and Djokovic to become the first Asian man ever to reach a grand slam final at last year’s US Open. A genuine threat.
ANDY MURRAY (SCO)
Age: 27
Ranking: 6
Plays: right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money: $US34,190,085 ($A36.99 million)
Career titles: 31
Grand slam titles: 2 (US Open 2012; Wimbledon 2013)
Australian Open win-loss record: 33-9
Best Australian Open performances: finalist 2010, 2011, 2013
The three-time Open runner-up enjoyed a fine end to 2014, signalling he is returning to his best following back surgery. Can never be discounted given his impressive record down under.
BEST OUTSIDER
GRIGOR DIMITROV (BUL)
Age: 23
Ranking: 11
Plays: right-handed
Career prize money: $US4,849,776 ($A5.25 million)
Career titles: 4
Grand slam titles: 0
Australian Open win-loss record: 6-4
Best Australian Open performance: quarter-finalist 2014
Long hailed as the game’s next big thing, the Bulgarian is finally starting to live up to expectations. It took a colossal effort from Nadal to deny the Wimbledon semi-finalist a place in the final four last year.
BEST AUSTRALIAN HOPE
NICK KYRGIOS
Age: 19
Ranking: 53
Plays: right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money: $US768,112 ($A831,065)
Career titles: 0
Grand slam titles: 0
Australian Open win-loss record: 1-1
Best Australian Open performance: 2nd round 2014
The teenage sensation is officially now Australia’s top-ranked men’s player after leapfrogging Lleyton Hewitt and is out to show his charge to last year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals was anything but a grand slam fluke.
BERNARD TOMIC
Age: 22
Ranking: 71
Plays: right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money: $US2,441,695 ($A2.64 million)
Career titles: 2
Grand slam titles: 0
Australian Open win-loss record: 9-6
Best Australian Open performance: 4th round 2012
The emergence of younger guns Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis has been just the jolt Australian tennis’s original boy wonder needed. In form, loves the big stage and looking fitter and more focused than ever.
