The Australian Open Championship, the first major tennis tournament of the 2023 season, will open at Melbourne Park, Australia on the 16th. With Carlos Alcaras (Spain), the world’s No. 1 in men’s professional tennis (ATP) singles, absent due to a leg injury, attention now focuses on the competition between Nadal and Djokovic for the most major wins.
Nadal holds the record for the most in the category with 22 major victories in his career. Among the ‘Big 3’ including himself [Djokovic and Roger Federer (retired, Switzerland) have won 21 and 20 major championships, respectively.
Nadal, who is a year older than Djokovic, turns 37 this year, but is still strong. Having won the Australian Open and French Open last year, he will challenge for his first consecutive victory at the Australian Open this year.
The face isn’t very good. Her chronic pain in her left foot and an abdominal muscle injury sustained at Wimbledon last year added to her performance. After withdrawing from Wimbledon in the semifinals, she has not made it past the round of 16 in any tournament.
He recorded 1 win and 6 losses in the last 7 matches, and in the United Cup he participated in this year, he lost to Alex Diminore (24th, Australia) and Cameron Norrie (12th, England) without a win in the group stage.
However, Nadal said, “It is true that I have not been able to show my usual performance in recent competitions,” but “I am in good shape right now. I am confident,” he said. 먹튀검증
Compared to Nadal, Djokovic is on the rise. He won the championship in the first round of the ATP Tour Adelaide, which was like a skirmish, and made a fuss. Last year, he also won the ATP Finals, the king of kings, and shared the record for the most wins in this tournament with Federer.
Above all, the Australian Open is Djokovic’s ‘garden’. He lifted 9 championship cups in a single major tournament that no one has achieved at the Australian Open. If he wins again this time, Djokovic will not only stand shoulder to shoulder with Nadal in terms of major wins, but also become the second player to reach 10 wins in a single tournament after Nadal. Nadal, who is called the ‘soil god’, lifted a whopping 14 trophies at the French Open held on clay courts.
Last year, he was deported after entering Australia due to non-vaccination for Corona 19 and was unable to step on the court, so his will to win this year seems stronger than ever.
However, Djokovic, like Nadal, has an ‘injury variable’. He injured his hamstring while training in Australia. AFP news agency said, “Djokovic had a problem with his hamstring in the process of digesting the first match in Adelaide. On the 11th he was cut short for treatment.”
In the women’s singles, the world’s No. 1 Iga Sibiong Tech (Poland) is aiming for the 4th major title in its career. Zig is maintaining her upward trend, winning the difficult French Open and US Open, and being named the first player since Angelique Kerber (Germany) in 2016 to win the championship in one season in a row.
Korean-American player Jessica Fegula (3rd place), who won 2-0 against Sibiong Tech in the semifinals of this year’s United Cup, and Ounce Jaber (2nd place, Tunisia), who won two tours last year, are ‘opponents’.