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As one of the most naturally gifted players on Tour, Nick Kyrgios is used to handling great expectations.

For the highest-ranked Australian in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, nowhere is that ability to cope with pressure more in demand than at the Australian Open. His impressive 2022 season may even have taken home expectations up another notch for the 27-year-old this year, but Kyrgios is relishing the moment as he prepares for his 10th main draw appearance in Melbourne.

"I think everyone wants to get to a position in their sport or their profession, [to] be one of the best and have that expectation and pressure,” said Kyrgios on Saturday, the day after entertaining a packed house on Rod Laver Arena in a charity match against Novak Djokovic. “It's a privilege to go out there and feel that Australia wants me to win and to be one of the favourites. It's a good feeling.”

That was one FUN chapter in the @DjokerNole and @NickKyrgios AO story ✌️

Thanks for a great night! #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/TxzfI2cAA0

Kyrgios has enjoyed some stirring runs at his home major since making his main draw debut in 2014. He reached the quarter-finals in 2015 and the fourth round in 2018 and 2020, and lifted the 2022 men’s doubles title alongside close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis. Yet he admitted that there are pros and cons to the extra attention that comes with playing at home.

Novak Djokovic is the leading favourite at this year’s Australian Open. The Serbian is not shying away from the pressure of standing at the doorstep of history, either.

If Djokovic claims his 10th title at Melbourne Park, he will tie Rafael Nadal for the most men's Grand Slam singles titles in history with 22. Is that a motivating factor?

“Of course, it is. I mean, that's why I keep on playing professional tennis, competition tennis, because I want to be the best, I want to win the biggest tournaments in the world. There is no secret about it,” Djokovic said. “It doesn't get bigger than this. You have four Slams that historically have been the biggest events in our sport. It's also one of the biggest reasons why I was really looking forward to come back to Australia: because of my record here. I really love playing in Rod Laver Arena, particularly night sessions. I've had plenty of success that hopefully can continue this year.”

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Djokovic is the fourth seed, but he has been playing as well as anyone on Tour over the past several months. He captured titles in Tel-Aviv and Astana last October before claiming his sixth Nitto ATP Finals crown in Turin.

After winning four tour-level titles in 2022, including the Roland Garros crown, Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer claimed their first trophy of the new season Saturday at the Adelaide International 2.

The El Salvadoran-Dutch duo was set to contest a rematch of that Paris final, in which they saved three championship points to defeat Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek, at the ATP 250. Instead, they received a walkover in the title match as Dodig withdrew with a back injury. The second seeds were also the beneficiaries of a walkover in the semi-finals, when Lloyd Glasspool (partnering Harri Heliovaara) pulled out with a wrist problem.

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"It's very unusual. This has never happened before, I think for either of us, back-to-back walkovers — especially not in the final, in this manner," Rojer said after the trophy ceremony.

"We played a couple of matches, so we'll take those with us into Melbourne for sure, and try to build on that... It's a great start for us to the year."

Richard Gasquet turned back the clock with a vintage display in Saturday's ASB Classic final to claim his first ATP Tour title since 2018. The 36-year-old Frenchman stunned second seed and former Auckland resident Cameron Norrie 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, winning the final five games of the match to become the oldest champion in the event's 66-year history.

The former World No. 7 last raised a tour-level title more than four years ago in 's-Hertogenbosch. The Auckland triumph, which lifted him 25 spots to No. 42 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings this week, is just the second outdoor hard court triumph of his career (Doha 2013). It is the 16th title of his decorated career.

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Gasquet denied Norrie a full-circle moment at the tournament he once attended as a young fan, with the Briton thwarted in the final of the ATP 250 for a second time in five years. The defeat is his first of the new season, dropping him to 6-1 on the year.

In a matchup that pitted Gasquet's iconic one-handed backhand against Norrie's flat two-hander, the Frenchman proved he still has plenty of substance to go along with his style. Both men had countless opportunities to hit groundstrokes off both wings across many marathon rallies, but it was Gasquet who stood tallest down the stretch after falling behind 0-3 and 1-4 in the final set.

Rafael Nadal is always one of the leading favourites regardless of the tournament he enters. The Spaniard has earned that recognition by holding No. 1 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for more than 200 weeks, claiming 36 ATP Masters 1000 trophies and 22 Grand Slam titles.

But the 36-year-old arrives at the Australian Open in a slump, having lost six of his past seven matches. Does Nadal feel he is vulnerable at Melbourne Park?

“Of course. Yeah, without a doubt. I have been losing more than usual, so that's part of the business,” Nadal said. “Just accept the situation. I think I am humble enough to accept that situation and just work with what I have today. I need to build again all this momentum. I need to build again this confidence with myself with victories. But it's true that I have been losing more than usual.”

Nadal made no excuse for his current skid. But two of those losses were at the Nitto ATP Finals, and the lowest-ranked player he lost to was then-World No. 31 Tommy Paul at the Rolex Paris Masters.

“The real thing is I have been losing more than usual. Yeah, that's the truth. I need to live with it and just fight for the victories,” Nadal said. “By the way, I didn't play that bad the first two matches the year. I lost against two great opponents, but having very positive chances to win both matches. I already have been here for three weeks, practising every day with that conditions, with the best players. That helps a lot in general terms.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas returns for his sixth Australian Open in a far better place, both physically and mentally, than he was one year ago. At the 2022 event, the Greek entered with great uncertainty, still on the mend from right-elbow surgery.

Despite arriving with low expectations, Tsitsipas advanced to the semi-finals for the second straight year and third time overall at the Happy Slam. This year, he is flying high entering the season's first major after leading Team Greece to the semis at the inaugural United Cup.

"United Cup was a great experience. I'm happy that the event took place," he said during Saturday's Australian Open media day, noting that he personally campaigned for such a mixed-gender team event to be added to the tennis calendar.

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"I enjoyed every minute of it, sharing it with Maria [Sakkari] by my side. We formed some really nice memories, both in Perth and Sydney, despite our loss to Italy. I can only take good things out of it.

"We fought. We didn't prevail and come out victorious, but it was definitely one of those events that tennis [has been] lacking. Tennis doesn't have events like this. Tennis is a very individual, lonely sport. Getting together, sharing these moments together, being part of the same cause and the same goal together, it was something that makes me grow as a player and makes me want to look forward to the next edition of the United Cup."

After falling one match short of the title at the 2022 Nitto ATP Finals, Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic earned their way back into the winners' circle in their first event of the 2023 ATP Tour season.

In Saturday's doubles final at the ASB Classic in Auckland, the Croatians defeated Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-6 to claim their 15th tour-level title as team. The result secured a measure of revenge for the champions, who were upset by the Americans in their lone previous ATP Head2Head matchup at the 2021 US Open.

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Living up to their billing as top seeds in Auckland, Mektic and Pavic won three Match Tie-breaks in their four victories, never losing the opening set. They improved to 120-34 as they began their third season as a team, their partnership highlighted by titles at Wimbledon and the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in addition to four ATP Masters 1000 crowns. The 34-year-old Mektic and 29-year-old Pavic have both reached the top of the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings in their careers, with both currently inside the Top 10.

Lammons and Withrow, both 29, were seeking their second ATP Tour title in their third final together. Their previous triumph came on home soil in San Diego last season, a year in which they also reached the Gijon final.

Paul Annacone was a terrific player, rising to No. 12 in the Pepeprstone ATP Rankings (singles) and winning 14 doubles titles, including the 1985 Australian Open. He went on to coach Pete Sampras, who won 14 Grand Slam singles titles, and Roger Federer, who broke that record and finished with 20. He’s an astute analyst for Tennis Channel, offering cerebral, nuanced commentary — and, along with Michael Russell, helps coach rising American Taylor Fritz.

He also provided perspective for the Netflix series Break Point, which dropped Friday.

What was your experience with the Netflix crew over the 2022 season?
We had significant conversations at Indian Wells, Paris, just after Wimbledon and another one a month ago. Probably a half a dozen [sit-down interviews] overall and four pretty lengthy ones. And a number of times, just onsite when we were at the same tournaments at the same time. The producers are trying to give people an understanding of who these athletes are other than what they see on TV. We’re going to see a lot of perspectives. And we’re going to see the stuff that goes through players’ minds — good, bad or indifferent.

What do you think the main takeaways will be for the audience?
The simple theme that these athletes are human beings. They’re a lot like everybody else — they’re just extremely gifted with tennis racquets in their hands. And the human condition gets lost in extraordinary people and extraordinary athletes and this hopefully will give people an understanding that, at the end of the day, they’re human beings. They feel and do and act just like we do. But they do it in front of millions of people, so it’s a little bit different.

Talking with executive producer James Gay-Rees and showrunner Kari Lia, their takeaway was something you already know as someone inside the game — that professional tennis is really hard.
Yeah, it is. And many people don’t realise that at all. We’re also at a time where I think it’s really interesting, when you see new superstars jump on to the scene all of those human characteristics come into play even more, because it’s a totally new landscape for them. So, the next 12 to 36 months is going to be really interesting.

The third episode of Netflix’s Break Point takes fans behind the scenes of Taylor Fritz’s epic BNP Paribas Open title run, during which he overcomes a freak match-day injury to stun Rafael Nadal in the final. But that was not the only dramatic moment of the American’s season.

Later in the year Fritz also captured an ATP 500 title in Tokyo, where he again had to shake off significant adversity to take the title after spending the previous week in Covid-19 quarantine.

The Californian and his girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, both tested positive in Seoul, South Korea, where they quarantined in their hotel room.

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“He was in quarantine for a week, I was in quarantine for nine days. I had to stay there longer, which was terrible,” Riddle told ATPTour.com. “Then flew straight from there to Tokyo and he won the title after literally not training or doing anything. We basically turned into the grandparents from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We didn’t get out of bed for 10 days and then he gets up and goes and wins a title.

One of the most tension-filled moments of the fifth episode of Netflix’s Break Point comes when Casper Ruud attempts to warm up for a match at Roland Garros. The rain had not begun to fall, but the court crew begins to cover the surface with tarp, preventing the Norwegian from hitting.

Ruud and his team, led by father and coach Christian Ruud, protest in the hopes Casper could quickly warm up.

“I get stressed out when I’m late for practice. I freak out, actually,” Ruud told ATPTour.com. “That’s the moment you’ll find me the most stressed. I didn’t freak out at Roland Garros, but it was quite close to seeing a new side of myself.”

It was one of the biggest moments of Ruud’s life: The then-World No. 8 was attempting to warm up for his first major semi-final.

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ATPTour.com looks at five Challenger Tour players to keep your eyes on during the 2023 Australian Open.

Rinky Hijikata (AUS)
The 21-year-old sets his sights on making a splash at his home Slam, where he is playing the main draw for the first time. Last season, Hijikata met Rafael Nadal in the opening round of the US Open and pushed the 22-time major champion to four sets.

In October, Hijikata won his maiden Challenger title on home soil at the Playford Challenger. The Sydney native became the youngest Australian to win a Challenger title since 2018, when the-then 19-year-old Alexei Popyrin won in Jinan, China.

Rinky Hijikata is crowned champion at the 2022 Playford Challenger. Credit: Tennis Australia

The former University of North Carolina star, who is World No. 169, has already clashed against Top-5 players such as Nadal and Daniil Medvedev at the ATP 250 event in Los Cabos, where Hijikata earned his first Tour-level victory before meeting the-then World No. 1. Should Hijikata get past qualifier Yannick Hanfmann in Melbourne, he could face third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round.

Roberto Bautista Agut may have won a nail-biting three setter against home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis on Friday in Adelaide, but it was his son who won the hearts of fans with an adorable cameo after the semi-final.

While the Spaniard was delivering his post-match interview, a large smile came across his face as he noticed his son, two-year-old Roberto, making his way on court. When they made eye contact, Roberto Jr. sprinted towards his dad as if he was covering the baseline!

The 34-year-old shared hugs, kisses, and laughs with his son. When interviewer John Fitzgerald commented on the good looks of the toddler, Bautista Agut commented, ‘because of my wife!’ Shortly after, Roberto Jr. took off again as the Aussie crowd cheered him on.

The World No. 26 hopes to lift his son in one arm and the Adelaide trophy in the other on Saturday. Aiming for his 12th Tour-level title, Bautista Agut will play South Korean Soonwoo Kwon in the Adelaide International-2 final.

A key storyline at Roland Garros last year was the ‘Uncle Toni controversy’. Toni Nadal, the uncle and former coach of all-time great Rafael Nadal, coaches Felix Auger-Aliassime. Before the pair clashed on the Parisian clay, Uncle Toni told the media he wanted his nephew to win.

That caused drama in the media, where some wondered how Auger-Aliassime would feel about the situation. The moment became a central theme in the fifth episode of Netflix’s new tennis series, Break Point.

Although dramatic on the show, Auger-Aliassime told ATPTour.com that there was no controversy on his side.

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“I had been working with him for a while. It’s a discussion that we had from day one about potentially playing Rafa… [that]normally that he might sit it out and not be in the box or just watch from a neutral place,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It was still nice to see him at the match, though. Of course I saw him in the front row.

Matteo Berrettini has always excelled on grass courts, his big serve and booming forehand at their most dangerous on the slick lawns. But it was at the 2019 US Open where the Italian made his Grand Slam breakthrough, reaching the semi-finals before a defeat to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.

With that experience in his locker, in addition to a run to the 2021 Roland Garros quarter-finals, Berrettini was hotly tipped for another deep run at Wimbledon in 2021. His title triumph on the grass at The Queen's Club in London, just before the year's third major, lifted him further up the list of favourites at the All England Club.

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At Wimbledon, Berrettini dropped just one set in his first four matches as he cruised into the quarter-finals for the first time. A pair of four-set victories against Felix Auger-Aliassime and Hubert Hurkacz sent him through the the final, where World No. 1 and two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic was waiting. By reaching the championship match, he became the first Italian man to reach a major final since Adriano Panatta in 1976.

Berrettini looked back on the final, a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(3) defeat played at the highest level from both men, in the Netflix docuseries Break Point. For added perspective, ATPTour.com caught up with his brother, fellow tennis player Jacopo Berrettini, for his own reflections.

It didn't take long in his tennis career for Nick Kyrgios to prove he was a man for the big stages. In his very first Wimbledon in 2014, the Aussie wild card saved nine match points to upset Richard Gasquet before pulling off an ever bigger shock in his Centre Court debut.

In his first meeting with Rafael Nadal — the World No. 1 at the time — Kyrgios powered to a 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3 fourth-round victory that truly marked his arrival at the game's highest level. As No. 144 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, he became the first man in 10 years to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals on his tournament debut, a result that earned him his breakthrough into the Top 100 at the age of 19.

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In the first episode of the Netflix docuseries Break Point, Kyrgios gave his perspective on that inflection point in his career.

Kyrgios' longtime friend and current manager, Daniel Horsfall, also recalled the enormity of that result in an interview with ATPTour.com. After closely following the early stages of the Australian's career, Horsfall witnessed his friend become a superstar in front of his own eyes.

One of the stories of the 2022 season was Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios’ dream run to the Australian Open doubles title. The ‘Special Ks’ immediately became fan favourites and they used the crowd to their advantage to secure the trophy at their home Grand Slam.

It was such a special moment, their run earned significant airtime in Netflix’s new tennis series Break Point. According to Kokkinakis, they did not enter the tournament expecting to do what they did.

“One, the intention wasn’t going to the event to try to win the tournament. That’s for sure. It’s not something we even really spoke about ever until maybe the quarter-finals or so,” Kokkinakis told ATPTour.com. “It was just something that we did together to have fun and seeing how much the crowd got into it and how much they wanted us to succeed kind of propelled us on.

Most doubles teams train together on off days. That helps build team chemistry on the court and also is convenient, since players need a practice partner.

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Intense and focused from the second he steps on court, Taylor Fritz’s hard-hitting game has taken him to four ATP Tour titles and the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Away from the action, however, the 25-year-old American is a calm, collected and fun-loving presence on the Tour. Now featured in Netflix’s behind-the-scenes documentary series Break Point, ATPTour.com breaks down five things you may not know about the wide-smiling American.

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1) He Is An Avid Gamer & E-Sports Investor.
Fritz is not just a serious contender on the tennis court. One of the American’s biggest off-court passions is video games, with Fortnite, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 and World of Warcraft listed among his all-time favourites. He has invested in a company that owns a Call of Duty league team, the London Ravens, but he still gets his biggest kick from competing online himself.

“I think I really got into it when I found out that you could play online against other people,” Fritz told ATPTour.com in 2021. “Just the idea of competition like that… When I was a kid that was the most entertaining thing to me, going up against somebody else. So, when I found out I could go on Xbox with my friends and play Call of Duty at night against other people and talk [smack] to them while doing it, it was really fun for me.”

When Matteo Berrettini and his brother, Jacopo Berrettini, were young, they grew up at a tennis club. Matteo, however, enjoyed multiple sports, including swimming, football and judo.

Jacopo, who is two-and-a-half years younger than his brother, missed having Matteo to play the sport with, so he got to work convincing him to focus on tennis.

“We started together, then he stopped a little bit and then he came back to play with me,” Jacopo told ATPTour.com. “I convinced him to play again. He tried other sports, but after that we started to play together and then we never stopped.

“We were so young, so probably my parents did a great job to convince him and me [to play tennis]. I think I gave to him the important energy and passion for tennis, to enjoy that. It’s something we could do together, so I think it’s funny. I think it’s better to do [something] together.”

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It was a year of firsts for Taylor Fritz in 2022. The American lifted his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy at Indian Wells and later competed in the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

Fans can now get an up-close look at Fritz's ascent on Netflix's Break Point, which premiered on 13 January. Before the show was released, the American spoke to ATPTour.com about the filming process, his favourite Netflix show, and his biggest reason for participating.

What was most surprising about the whole Netflix experience?
I feel like it was a lot less time-consuming, hands-on than I thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to have to get used to having a camera around me at all times. But it was really just at tournaments here and there, nothing at home or anything like that. It was a lot more chill than I thought it was going to be.

Were you expecting it would take time to get used to it a little bit. Were you nervous about dealing with all of that?
I didn’t know what it was going to really be like, but I don’t think I was too nervous about it because I kind of just made the decision before I even started doing it that I was just going to act like it’s not there the whole time and be how I am regardless of what they’re filming.

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If you look in Nick Kyrgios’ player box at tournaments across the world, there are a few constants. One of them is his manager, Daniel Horsfall. ‘Horse’ is not the typical tennis manager, though. He was Kyrgios’ friend first.

The pair’s relationship dates back to their junior days in Canberra at Daramalan College, a school for students in Years 7-12. For Kyrgios’ fans, it will be no surprise that they met on the schoolyard basketball court.

“We didn’t really get along. It was maybe two or three weeks when we were playing basketball every day, going head to head and arguing, just being competitive,” Horsfall told ATPTour.com. “One day we got put on the same team and it just changed. Since [then] we’ve never looked back and been pretty close, attached at the hip for a few years there. It’s kind of led to where we all are now. He’s definitely like a brother from another mother. I’m very close with his family.”

Horsfall was not a big tennis fan. The only match he recalls from his childhood was when Lleyton Hewitt played the Australian Open final. He watched part of the match with his nan and pop.

“I don’t even remember watching the whole thing. It was pretty late. I went to bed and I was told the result, but it meant nothing to me,” Horsfall said. “Obviously being at school in Australia, a lot of people play rugby or soccer or basketball. Tennis is not really an accessible school sport. You don’t really get teams of tennis in Australia. It’s more of a college, U.S. thing I think. I honestly didn’t know much about tennis and Nick Kyrgios in that sense.”