Novak Djokovic begins his quest for a all-time record 25th grand slam title on Sunday night, facing 18-year-old qualifier Dino Prizmic.
Djokovic, at 36, is the hot favourite to claim an 11th Australian Open title this year which would take him to 25 slams in total – moving him above Margaret Court into the all-time lead.
Rafael Nadal, who pulled out of this year’s Australian Open with a muscle tear, has won 22 Grand Slams and the retired Roger Federer, 20.
Prizmic, the 2023 Roland Garros boys’ singles champion, won his way through three qualifying rounds to reach the main draw in his first ever slam appearance.
The teen talent has a massive task ahead of him on the first-ever Sunday night opening session on Rod Laver Arena.
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Djokovic has never lost a Grand Slam match to a player ranked as low as No. 178 Prizmic (the lowest-ranked player to beat the Serb at a slam was No. 117 Denis Istomin in the 2nd round of the AO in 2017).
In fact, he’s never lost to a qualifier at a slam (24-0) and has reached the second round in 16 consecutive Australian Open appearances.
He’s also won his last 28 matches at the Australian Open, which includes two titles in 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2023 (after not competing in 2022).
Djokovic’s last loss at Melbourne Park was in the round of 16 in 2018, losing to Hyeon Chung.
The stage is set for Djokovic to rack up another comfortable win and add to his unparallelled Australian Open record – but anything could happen.
SUNDAY LIVE BLOG – DAY SESSION
Eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi has anointed Novak Djokovic as the greatest men’s player of all time, saying you cannot argue with the weight of his achievements.
The popular American former world number one, himself widely considered among the best the sport has seen, also had lavish praise for Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
But he said numbers do not lie.
“There’s so many ways to look at it, but when you look at it on paper you just can’t argue with what he’s accomplished,” Agassi told The Australian newspaper in Melbourne, where he is attending the opening Grand Slam of the year.
“The amount that he’s won, the head-to-heads, the Masters (titles), the year-end number ones, the weeks at number … all those stats.”
“Novak has won more Australian Opens than I’ve won Slams for crying out loud … what do you do but laugh? I don’t know what to say to that,” Agassi added.
Lehecka fights to claim first ATP Title | 00:52
DAY 1 ORDER OF PLAY (Show courts + Aussies in action)
Night session from 7pm AEDT, unless listed
ROD LAVER ARENA
Night session
No.1 Novak Djokovic (SRB) v Dino Prizmic (CRO) LIVE
Ella Seidel (GER) v No.2 Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) LIVE
MARGARET COURT ARENA
Night session
No.20 Magda Linette (POL) v Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
No.17 Frances Tiafoe (USA) v Borna Coric (CRO)
JOHN CAIN ARENA
Not before 4pm: No.12 Taylor Fritz (USA) v Facundo Diaz Acosta (ARG)
AUSSIES IN ACTION
Kia Arena, from 11am: Matteo Arnaldi (ITA) v Adam Walton (AUS) LIVE
Kia Arena, not before 5pm: Daniel Elahi Galan (COL) v Jason Kubler (AUS) LIVE
Court 3, Not before 3:30pm: Christopher O’Connell (AUS) v Cristian Garin (CHI) LIVE
Follow Night 1 of the Australian Open in our LIVE BLOG below, and scroll down for more news! Can’t see the blog? Tap here!
RECORDS ALREADY TUMBLING
It’s only the first day of Main Draw action at the Open, but the Summer of Tennis is in full swing – and fans can’t get enough in 2024.
The Aus Open heavily promoted ‘opening week’ this year – with cheap tickets for fans to watch qualifiers, a host of live entertainment options, and even handing out thousands of racquets to children.
It resulted in 89,894 fans coming through the gates from Monday to Saturday, breaking last year’s record of 63,120.
And there’s also been crowd records broken around the rest of the country, too.
The cumulative attendance of the other tournaments in the Australian Summer of Tennis – the United Cup in Perth and Sydney, plus the Brisbane, Hobart, and Adelaide Internationals – was 321,069. That breaks the 2020 record of 314,085, and proves that the summer of tennis is well and truly back after being severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
MORE COVERAGE
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