We’re about six weeks away from the opening of the 2022 Australian Open, and already some surprising headlines are starting to emerge. Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, has already decided not to head down under for the year’s first Grand Slam. In a statement on Twitter, Andreescu noted that the time she spent in quarantine, the extended stay her grandmother had had in an ICU due to COVID and a sense of “collective sadness and turmoil” around her, both on and off the court, kept her from achieving her best, and she has decided to start her 2022 season later. At the end of 2021, she was ranked #46 in the world but, before an injury that kept her out for the whole 2020 season, she had been ranked as high as #4. In 2021, she made it to the Miami Open final before retiring against Ashleigh Barty; after that, she would only advance as far as a quarterfinal once the rest of the year.
As you think about your online betting on the Australian Open, take a look at some of the latest headlines.
Tennis News: Surprises for the 2022 Australian Open
Novak Djokovic will return to Melbourne
The Australian government had announced a COVID-19 mandate that had drawn the ire of the top male tennis player in the world, and that mandate was the subject of a dispute between the Serbian star and the government. However, the fact that that he is playing the ATP Cup in Sydney in January lends credence to the notion that he would stick around for the year’s first grand slam.
Djokovic is already slated to represent top-seeded Serbia in Group A of the ATP Cup, which is in its second year. Two years ago, Serbia won the very first ATP Cup, taking down Spain in the championship match.
Djokovic had previously stated that he would not reveal his vaccination status because he believed it to be a personal decision, and that he would attend the Australian Open if the protocols fit his requirements at the time. The vaccine mandate will require that every player, as well as officials and fans, show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination in order to compete in the tournament. Craig Tiley, the Australian Open’s CEO and Tournament Director, noted that every player coming to Melbourne would need to have two doses of COVID-19 vaccine in order to compete. Djokovic is currently tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with 20 Grand Slam titles apiece.
Roger Federer will miss the Australian Open – and Wimbledon
Since turning pro in 1998, Roger Federer has been a regular at tennis four Grand Slams. As time has started to catch up with him a bit, he has had to modulate his playing load, which means that he has had to miss some major opportunities.
At Wimbledon in 2021, Federer lost in straight sets to Hubert Hurkacz in the quarterfinal round; that was his last competitive match before undergoing knee surgery. Federer has talked on more than one occasion about how his career is starting to wind down – but also about how he wants to give fans the chance to see him one more time. He just turned 40, but now he would not come back until the U.S. Open in August.
Sam Stosur will play her last Australian Open in 2022
Stosur will appear in her 20th Australian Open next month, and the doubles specialist is making her swan song this time around. She has won two Grand Slam doubles titles (Australian Open, 2019; U.S. Open, 2021), with Zhang Shuai, but she has never pushed past the fourth round at Melbourne in singles play. Her only singles Grand Slam title came back in 2011, when she knocked off Serena Williams, 6-3, 6-2, at the U.S. Open.
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