Djokovic & Sabalenka Set To Begin Australian Open Campaign Untraditionally On Sunday

Djokovic & Sabalenka Set To Begin Australian Open Campaign Untraditionally On Sunday

by Zachary Wimer

This year's Australian Open will be a bit different because play will start on Sunday instead of Monday as the event expanded into a 15-day event.

John McEnroe recently accused Tennis Australia that the Sunday start of the tournament is nothing more than a money grab. It's one more day of tennis and ticket sales and everything connected to that goes along with it.

Although some are fans of it, and others disagree, we finally know who are going to be the players starting on Sunday, January 14th, and both defending champions, Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka will be in action.

Sending out both defending champions is a choice, and it's to maximize that added day, as McEnroe explained. It's not ideal for Djokovic, who would have probably preferred to start later due to the wrist issue he experienced recently.

Some even suggested that he could request a later starting day at the event, but that's out of the question right now, as he'll be in action on Sunday. These two matches are not the only matches, of course, as there will be many more matches, apart from the defending champions, who are both starting against one of the qualifiers or lucky losers.

Some other exciting matches that will be played on Sunday include Jannik Sinner taking on Botic van de Zandschulp, Frances Tiafoe clashing with Borna Coric, Andrey Rublev meeting Thiago Seyboth Wild, and Caroline Wozniacki facing Magda Linette.

On top of that, Taylor Fritz will play against Facundo Diaz Acosta, Amanda Anisimova will meet Liudmila Samsonova, and Leylah Fernandez will start against one of the qualifiers.

It's a pretty good opening day of the Australian major, so expect a lot of tennis fans to show up, especially with Djokovic and Sabalenka both in action.

2024 Australian Open Men's and Women's Sunday Matches:

Novak Djokovic Qualifier or Lucky Loser
Alexander Shevchenko Jaume Munar
Christopher O'Connell Cristian Garin
Taylor Fritz Facundo Diaz Acosta
Fabian Marozsan Marin Cilic
Qualifier or Lucky Loser Francisco Cerundolo
Jannik Sinner Botic van de Zandschulp
Qualifier or Lucky Loser Pedro Cachin
Daniel Elahi Galan Jason Kubler
J.J. Wolf Sebastian Baez
Frances Tiafoe Borna Coric
Tomas Machac Qualifier or Lucky Loser
Matteo Arnaldi Adam Walton
Pavel Kotov Arthur Rinderknech
Quentin Halys Qualifier or Lucky Loser
Thiago Seyboth Wild Andrey Rublev
Maria Sakkari Nao Hibino
Zhuoxuan Bai Elina Avanesyan
Magda Linette Caroline Wozniacki
Alize Cornet Qualifier
Sara Sorribes Tormo Qualifier
Leylah Fernandez Qualifier
Alycia Parks Qualifier
Caroline Dolehide Qualifier
Kamilla Rakhimova Emina Bektas
Diane Parry Xinyu Wang
Tamara Korpatsch Jodie Burrage
Mai Hontama Barbora Krejcikova
Liudmila Samsonova Amanda Anisimova
Lesia Tsurenko Lucia Bronzetti
Ana Bogdan Qualifier
Qualifier Aryna Sabalenka

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