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