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Hello from Melbourne, where over the next two weeks I’ll be deep in the thick of things with Tennis Channel’s Australian Open production team – in the booth with our announcers during matches, in the studio for our pre-game show and overall, embedded in bringing you our broadcast of the event Roger Federer has dubbed, “The Happy Slam.”

No better way to start than with a shot outside the newly opened statue honoring the man with a stadium that bears his name.  Yes, that’s Rod Laver, a bit more stiff than in the days when he was whipping shots into all corners of the court.  Then again, usually it’s only the great ones who get statues made and stadiums named.  While the man nicknamed “Rocket” is unquestionably the greatest Aussie of them all, Laver’s comportment is such that he knows he is just one member of an incredible community of champions.  As competitors, sportsmen and comrades-in-arms, no nation in tennis history brings the spirit of tennis to life better than Australia.  Over the course of this fortnight, expect me to sprinkle in mentions of a few of Rod’s fellow legends, both homegrown and beyond.      

Day One Intrigue:  Coco Vandeweghe versus Roberta Vinci

Fascinating style contrast.  Vandeweghe is the hammer, pounding away with her exceptional serve and powerful forehand. Vinci wields the stiletto, attempting to carve into the crevices with her slice backhand and all-court prowess.  Though Vandeweghe has won two of their three encounters – including the most recent in the third round of Wimbledon last year – the 25-year-old American also hasn’t won a WTA match since last August, dropping her last five matches of 2016.  But do three wins in Hopman Cup help Coco’s cause?  Vinci began this year with a quarterfinal run in Brisbane.  But at this stage of her career, this is the kind of match a maturing Vandeweghe should win.  Still, the difference between these two is appealing and could likely trigger significant emotions and technical breakdowns from each.

The rally which stretched both men to their limits may yet turn out to be one of the most significant points of the year on the ATP tour. Had Djokovic lost it, the Australian Open would have started at Melbourne Park on a completely different keel.

Obviously, Djokovic would not have won the title and, just as obviously, he would not have had the chance to gain a measure of revenge against Andy Murray, his old rival who has usurped his position as No 1 in the world.

But there is more to it than and it is all psychological. For the latter half of 2016, Djokovic’s mind went walk about – a favorite Australian phrase for someone who loses focus. His press conferences towards the end of the year became almost whimsical. He was off on a different mind set and it came as no surprise to me that Boris Becker left the Serb’s camp. The newcomer, the Spanish guru called Pepe, was never going to be Becker’s best buddy.

So imagine where Novak’s mind would have been had he lost to Verdasco. In all probability, the super fit and newly knighted Sir Andy would have won the title and would have arrived Melbourne on a run of 30 straight victories.

That is not the scenario now. Djokovic, clearly, has regained his focus. You do not win a 31 stroke rally at match point down if your mind is wavering. Nor do you recover from failing to serve out the match in the second set against Murray in the Doha final and dominating the third. That is the real Djokovic and, as a result, Sir Andy’s task of trying to with the Australian Open after failing in five finals, has become that much harder.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 14: Gilles Muller of Luxembourg holds aloft the winners trophy after winning the men's final match against Daniel Evans of Great Britain during the 2017 Sydney International at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre on January 14, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

It was the 33-year-old Muller’s first ATP win in his sixth final. At No. 34, he had been the highest-ranked player on the ATP Tour to have not won a tournament.

Sydney-born Johanna Konta of Britain won the women’s final on Friday over Agnieszka Radwanska.

Muller had played 16 years and more than 260 matches to achieve his first tournament win.

All eyes will be on Melbourne Park as the first of the Grand Slams or “majors” begins with the Australian Open airing on Tennis Channel from January 16 – 29, 2017 with the launch of two new number one ranking players Andy Murray and Angelique Kerber and past winners Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams will begin their quest as number two ranking players.

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They know that peaking right out of the gates is no facile task, but the fact remains that everyone is in the same boat. Moreover, even with extreme heat always a distinct possibility, the “Happy Slam” has earned that label by treating both the players and public in the most congenial fashion possible, and putting on an exceedingly good show.

This time around, forecasting the fortnight is considerably more difficult than usual, particularly among the women. The two top-ranked players must be regarded as the clear favorites, with No. 1 seed Angelique Kerber and No. 2 Serena Williams determined to succeed at the start of a brand new season. But both the left-handed German and the explosive American displayed striking vulnerability as they set their sights on Melbourne.

Williams took the entire autumn WTA Tour campaign off in 2016 to nurse some injuries and refresh her mind, and then returned in Auckland looking rusty, disconcerted and uncomfortable, making 88 unforced errors in a surprising three set, round of 16 defeat against countrywoman Madison Brengle. Kerber was disgruntled about her showing in Brisbane, where she lost in the quarterfinals to Elina Svitolina. Worsening her plight, she was ousted in the second round of Sydney the following week by the Russian Daria Kasatkina, then the No. 26 ranked player in the world.

Kerber, who turns 29 on January 18, has entered a different realm in her career. Prior to 2016, she had never won a major or even reached a final, but last year she captured two Grand Slam titles and made it to the title round in another. Now she is defending her crown in Melbourne, and that might be a burdensome experience for a woman who is already very hard on herself. As for Williams, she is hoping to eclipse Steffi Graf and secure a 23rd Grand Slam singles title, which would place the 35-year-old American only one championship behind the all time female leader, the stately Margaret Smith Court.

The woman who must be regarded as the clear third most likely to succeed is none other than Karolina Pliskova, who moved up to No. 5 in the world after winning the crown in Brisbane during the first week of January. Pliskova is not the biggest server in women’s tennis, but she is the most deceptive. In the 61 matches she played during 2016, Pliskova was the WTA Tour leader with 530 aces. In 2015, she also finished No. 1 in that category with 517 aces in 75 matches. She owns one of the game’s finest forehands.  On the run off that side she can be deadly. In her last Grand Slam tournament, the 24-year-old reached her first major final at the U.S. Open and lost narrowly to Kerber in three entertaining sets. I would not be the least bit surprised if she claims the crown in Melbourne, although the early rounds could be treacherous for her.

Sock also reached the tournament final in 2016 but had to pull out of the title match due to illness.

The 24-year-old Kansas resident is ranked 23 but still with only one career title to his name, having lost his past four finals, so his emotional response to Saturday’s win was understandable.

Sousa beat fifth-seeded Alberto Ramos-Vinolas and eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis on his way to Saturday’s showdown with Sock. Though the finalists knew each other well, playing doubles and regularly practising together, they had only met once before on the ATP Tour: last year in Madrid when Sousa won in three sets.

Sock came back from a break and 40-15 down in the deciding set to snatch his second career title, and enters next week’s Australian Open in confident mood, having also shown good form in the preceding Hopman Cup tournament in Perth, Australia.

”Coming from Perth I played a lot there so I felt good coming into this week but you never know how your first tournament of the year can go,” Sock said.

1. He’s won more Australian Open titles than any other man in the Open Era.

Djokovic captured his first Grand Slam title here in 2008 and has won five of the last six years too – 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016. His six titles are an Open Era record and tie him with Roy Emerson for the all-time record (Emerson won here in 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1967).

2. He’s only lost one match here in the last six years.

Djokovic has been almost unstoppable at Melbourne Park since 2011, winning 39 of his last 40 matches here – the only loss came against Stan Wawrinka in the 2014 quarterfinals. And Wawrinka had to go to the ends of the Earth to win that match, grinding out a marathon 2-6 6-4 6-2 3-6 9-7 victory in exactly four hours (Djokovic even finished with more points in the match, 161 to 153).

3. He’s not intimidated in the least by the rest of the Big Four here.

The Australian Open 2017 draw was always going to be an interesting one with Federer as the 17th seed and Nadal as the 9th seed. Federer ended up getting a pretty good draw while Nadal got the tough draw with Zverev in the third round.

Federer also got two consecutive qualifiers which seems shady because he also got qualifiers in 66 out of the 68 slams he played so far. Nadal had no such luck but he will probably make the third round where there could be a blockbuster third round awaiting us between him and Zverev.

The two have met once before in Indian Wells last year where Nadal only just prevailed 7-5 in the third. If that match happens Zverev is good enough to win it and he may also be ready to make a big move at a slam.

Defending men's and woman's champions Serbia's Novak Djokovic, left, and Germany's Angelique Kerber pose with their trophies prior to the official draw ceremony ahead of the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Jan. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

The official draw for the season’s first major was held Friday. Six-time women’s champion Serena Williams, aiming for an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam singles title, drew a challenging first-round opponent in Belinda Bencic and also had No. 9 Johanna Konta, No. 17 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 6 Dominika Cibulkova in her quarter.

Top-ranked Angelique Kerber, who beat Serena Williams in the final here last year to win her first Grand Slam title, will open against Lesia Tsurenko.

Make your Racquet Bracket ATP picks

On this week’s episode, Wertheim talks with Martina Navratilova.

Days before the 2017 Australian Open is set to begin in Melbourne, Navratilova joins the podcast from her home in Florida to talk about the current state of men’s and women’s tennis and her takeaways from the lead-up tournaments. Navratilova discusses Serena Williams’s surprising, error-laden loss to Madison Brengle at the ASB Classic and what effect she thinks it will have her preparation for the first major of the year in Melbourne. Navratilova also discusses aging and maturation of players during their careers, the importance of momentum going into a major and more. Wertheim and Navratilova also discuss how the top players will fare at the Australian Open, players to watch, the recent coaching changes and how much the new partnerships will affect players and more.

Also on the podcast, Wertheim and Navratilova make their picks and predictions for the 2017 Australian Open.

Watch Australian Open on Tennis Channel starting January 16, 2017

Federer slipped to No. 17 in the rankings this week after Grigor Dimitrov won the Brisbane International and moved up to No. 15.

The Australian Open tends to stick with the rankings when its seeds 32 players in each of the men’s and women’s 128-player singles draws, meaning the 35-year-old Federer gets less protection than usual and could potentially face a top 10 player in the third round.

The seedings were confirmed by Australian Open organizers on Thursday. The draw will be held Friday for the season-opening major, which starts Monday at Melbourne Park.

Federer has won the Australian Open four times, his first in 2004, and also reached the final in 2009, but he hasn’t won the title here since 2010.

[Watch the Australian Open on Tennis Channel starting January 16, 2017]

Sure, he was talented, but he seemed too brittle, too overshadowed by his compatriot Roger Federer to ever punch through at a major. When Wawrinka surprised himself and the skeptics by capturing the Australian Open three years ago, everyone figured it was a one-and-done thing and that he’d never win another major. When he won the 2015 French Open, most of us assumed he’d been miraculously gifted a second pouch of fairy dust and that he would absolutely, positively never win a third slam. And then he won the US Open this past September. The moral of the story? It is a really bad idea to use the word “never” in the same sentence with the words “Stan Wawrinka.”

But even though the 31-year-old Wawrinka has won more majors in the last three years than Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray combined and is just one title shy of a career slam, there remains an aura of improbability about him. Part of it is that he is so self-effacing. As was the case when he triumphed in Melbourne and in Paris, his victory celebration in New York was strikingly muted, as if he still regarded himself as an interloper, a party crasher. Wawrinka demurs whenever it is suggested that the so-called Big Four has now become the Fab Five. “The Big Four, I’m really far from them,” he said after his victory in Flushing, noting that they’ve shown a level of consistency that he has not. That’s the other factor here. Although Wawrinka is virtually a lock these days in title matches—he’s played in 12 tournament finals since 2014 and has won 11 of them—he still struggles with week-in, week-out focus. He reached the semifinals in Brisbane last week, and there’s every reason to think he’ll make a deep run at the Australian, which kicks off Monday. But beyond that, it is hard to say. With Wawrinka, you never quite know what you are going to get.

Is that a problem? It depends on how you want to look at it. If single-minded, sustained excellence is what you value in a player, then Stan the Man is not your man. But I happen to think that his recent success has been a godsend for tennis. As enthralling as the Big Four have been, they’d also rendered the men’s game numbingly predictable. You know the numbers; there’s no need to recite them here. In the last three years, Wawrinka has given men’s tennis a sorely needed element of chaos and surprise. You might think of him as the Clark Kent of tennis, the mild-mannered everyman who periodically slips into a phone booth (you remember those things) and comes out Superman, muscling his way to a major title. For all his ups and downs, Wawrinka has made men’s tennis vastly more interesting in recent years than it might otherwise have been.

[Watch ATP & WTA Australian Open Qualifying Matches LIVE on Tennis Channel Plus!]

Here are five of the women to keep an eye on throughout the qualifying week:

Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)

[Ranking No.167, Unseeded]

TORONTO, ON - JULY 26: Nenad Zimonjic of Sebia serves against Philip Bester and Adil Shamasdin of Canada in a doubles match with partner Novak Djokovic during Day 2 of the Rogers Cup at the Aviva Centre on July 26, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)

The 40-year-old Zimonjic replaces Bogdan Obradovic, who led Serbia to its only Davis Cup title in 2010.

Zimonjic, who will for now remain captain-player, has won 53 titles in doubles on the ATP tour. He has a record 69 appearances for the national team, including 41 wins.

His debut as Davis Cup captain will be at home against Russia in the first round in February.

Both players were treated for foot injuries during a grueling second set on Ken Rosewall Arena. Wozniacki came back from 5-2 down in that set, and then 5-0 in the tiebreaker, to win it and force a third set.

”It was brutal out there … but you just try and think like you’re on a beach drinking pina coladas,” Wozniacki said. ”That’s basically your train of thought. You know that it’s the same for both players, so I was just trying to mentally just try and keep cool.”

Strycova will meet the winner of the night match between second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska and qualifier Duan Yingying.

Former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard continued her strong start to the year with a 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Bouchard had a breakout season in 2014, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open before making the final at Wimbledon. But she has only gone past the fourth round at a major once since then and slipped to No. 46 at the end of last year.

[Watch ATP & WTA Australian Open Qualifying Matches LIVE on Tennis Channel Plus!]

Here are five of the men to keep an eye on throughout the qualifying week:

Radek Stepanek (CZE)

[Ranking No.102, Seed No.1]

Maria Sharapova speaks to members of the media prior to a World Team Tennis exhibition Monday, Oct. 10, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

Car manufacturer Porsche, which sponsors both Sharapova and the event in Stuttgart, says Sharapova has been given a wild-card entry into the tournament. It will be her first official competition since she tested positive for meldonium at last year’s Australian Open.

Sharapova, who won the Stuttgart tournament from 2012-14, says ”I could not be happier to have my first match back on tour at one of my favorite tournaments.”

Sharapova was originally banned for two years but that was reduced on appeal in October. She said she had used meldonium for years and was not aware it had been banned for 2016.

Kerber, who won last year’s Australian and U.S. Open for her first major titles, has opened the new season with one win in two tournaments in Brisbane and Sydney. The Australian Open starts Monday in Melbourne.

Eugenie Bouchard continued her resurgent run, meanwhile, with a 6-4, 6-3 win over WTA Finals champion Dominika Cibulkova to reach the quarterfinals in Sydney.

Bouchard improved her career record to 4-1 against Cibulkova, who was ranked No. 5 and was voted the WTA’s comeback player of the year in 2016 after her title win at the season-ending championship.

“Any time you play one of the best players in the world it’s like a standard of where you’re at,” said Bouchard, who had a wild-card entry in Sydney. “Every time I have played a match with Domi, we have had the toughest battles.

“I have won, I guess, more often than not, but everyone is a really tough battle.”

Kerber, who won last year’s Australian and U.S. Open for her first major titles, has opened the new season with one win in two tournaments in Brisbane and Sydney. The Australian Open starts Monday in Melbourne.

Eugenie Bouchard continued her resurgent run, meanwhile, with a 6-4, 6-3 win over WTA Finals champion Dominika Cibulkova to reach the quarterfinals in Sydney.

Bouchard improved her career record to 4-1 against Cibulkova, who was ranked No. 5 and was voted the WTA’s comeback player of the year in 2016 after her title win at the season-ending championship.

“Any time you play one of the best players in the world it’s like a standard of where you’re at,” said Bouchard, who had a wild-card entry in Sydney. “Every time I have played a match with Domi, we have had the toughest battles.

“I have won, I guess, more often than not, but everyone is a really tough battle.”