Australian Open: Youngest to career Grand Slam, record 25th Major or Melbourne Park hattrick?

Dubai: The season’s first Grand Slam, or the ‘Happy Slam’ as Roger Federer, the prodigal son returning to the Australian Open, likes to call it, has multiple subplots ready to play out in what is sure to be two weeks of spectacular, high-quality tennis.

Novak Djokovic winning his elusive 25th Grand Slam and his 11th Australian Open title, Carlos Alcaraz capturing his first one Down Under and becoming the youngest to complete a career Grand Slam at 22, Venus Williams becoming the oldest woman to play and win a match at the season-opening Grand Slam at 45 — these are just some of the chapters waiting to be written at Melbourne Park.

How Alcaraz would love to win this one, having not gone beyond the quarter-finals in his previous attempts. With six Grand Slam titles and as the top seed, the Spaniard will be eager to add the Australian Open title to his collection. The 22-year-old, who recently parted ways with his long-time coach Juan Carlos Ferrero, is in the same half as last year’s runner-up Alexander Zverev and will meet home hope Adam Walton in the first round.

His biggest and seemingly only rival at this point, Jannik Sinner, is the two-time defending champion on the hard courts of Rod Laver Arena. The world No 2 is drawn to meet Djokovic in the semi-finals — assuming that the Serb can get that far again — and will take on French lefty Hugo Gaston in the opening round.

Alcaraz enjoys a 10-6 lead in their head-to-head record and few would bet against the world’s top two players writing the next chapter in the “Sincaraz” rivalry.

Sinner made an appearance ahead of the draw ceremony and spoke about his outlook for the tournament. “The draw is very difficult; it doesn’t matter who you play. We are the best players in the world, and the way is very, very long and very far. We will go day by day,” he was quoted by ATP Tour.

Even as age and injuries catch up with the 38-year-old Serb — he pulled out of an Adelaide warm-up event this week saying he was “not physically ready” — tennis romantics will be wishing for stars to align for the now much-loved star.

He has not won a Grand Slam since 2023 at the US Open, but having made all four Major semis last year, the world No 4, who begins his campaign against Pedro Martinez, will be looking for an untroubled ride to the last four to stand any realistic chance of upending Sinner against whom he had a 4-1 head-to-head record, before that became 6-4 in the Italian’s favour.

Aryna Sabalenka has taken a stranglehold on women’s tennis, ending 2025 by finishing world number one for the second straight year. The 27-year-old Belarusian won a WTA Tour-leading four titles last year, including her fourth Grand Slam crown at the US Open.

So who can stop her? Well, Madison Keys can, the American winning a thrilling three-set final against the defending champion at Melbourne Park 12 months ago.

The hard-hitting Sabalenka was also beaten in the final of the French Open last year by Coco Gauff of the United States.

Moscow-born Kazakh Elena Rybakina defeated Sabalenka in the decider of the WTA Finals and in the quarter-finals at Cincinnati.

Other threats come from world number two and six-time major champion Iga Swiatek and Amanda Anisimova of the United States.

Among the eye-catching opening-round matchups is sixth seed and local hero Alex de Minaur against former No 6 Matteo Berrettini.

Third seed Zverev too has to evade a banana skin against big-serving Gabriel Diallo in the first round.

In the women’s section, Gauff and Williams could meet in the second round, more than six years after they first played each other in a major.