Imagine being able to put an arm around a forlorn Novak Djokovic just over a year ago and were able to tell him how 2018 would pan out. At a time when he was crashing out of the Australian Open in the fourth round to Chung Hyeon and facing question marks over his injuries, form and future, the Serbian may not have believed it if you informed him that he would close out the year as Wimbledon and US Open champion, as well as world number one.
Djokovic’s return to the top has been well documented, but it is the future that the Serb will be focusing on, not least the fact that the Australian Open (14th-27th January) is just about to get underway.
It’s hardly surprising that Djokovic is the betting favourite for the 2019 Australian Open, but it is interesting to see how far he is ahead of his rivals. A best-price of 13/10 comes in with Marathon Sports and 188Bet, but he is as low as 5/4 with some bookies. That’s quite the vote of confidence in the six-time champion.
While Roger Federer is the defending champion, he is a long way behind Federer in the betting odds, with a price of 6/1 from William Hill. Rafael Nadal can be backed at 7/1 with Unibet. Of course, neither player, giving their legendary prowess, should be discounted and are perhaps worth a shot with these best online betting offers from top tennis bookies.
There is a feeling, however, that Federer is – finally – on the winding down part of his career. Pundits have looked really foolish in the past after calling time on the mercurial Swiss, but he can’t hold back time forever and Federer did look much more exposed than usual at the US Open. Nadal, while undoubtedly having a couple of French Open titles left in him, has never truly enjoyed the Australian Open with the same gusto as other Slams.
Others could certainly challenge Djokovic – Alexander Zverev at 9/1 and, perhaps, local boy Nick Kyrgios at 18/1 (odds from Bet365) spring to mind. Sure, Zverev will have his backers after his triumph over Djokovic at the ATP World Finals in November, but is he ready to face the heat, both literally and metaphorically, at the Australian Open? It would be nice to say that there is a raft of young players ready to bother tennis’ top spots, but Zverev is the only occupant of the top seven in the world rankings aged under 31.
The biggest pointer of all is that Djokovic is playing like Djokovic again. That may seem like a throwaway comment, but he was not his imperious self for large swathes of 2017 and 2018. That has changed and, while it might not have complete consensus from tennis fans, he has enough time left in his career to be considered even greater than Federer. There are six years in age and six Grand Slams between the pair, if Djokovic overtakes Federer’s 20 Slams, then why not put him in the frame for greatest of all time? That debate can start next week in Australia and will no doubt intensify if Djokovic lands his seventh title in Melbourne.
