Stan Wawrinka
Last year, Wawrinka made his return to action at the Australian Open following two left knee surgeries in August 2017. The 2014 champion reached the second round in Melbourne, falling to surprise quarter-finalist Tennys Sandgren, before struggling for form in the opening half of the 2018 season.

Since then, the 16-time tour-level champion has shown signs of his best level. Wawrinka pushed eventual champion Rafael Nadal at the Rogers Cup before forcing Roger Federer to three sets at the Western & Southern Open. The former World No. 3 rose from No. 263 in the ATP Rankings on 11 June to end the season at No. 66.

Wawrinka maintained that momentum in Doha at the start of his 2019 ATP Tour season, beating Rolex Paris Masters champion Karen Khachanov and World No. 43 Nicolas Jarry at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open before a straight-sets loss to eventual tournament winner Roberto Bautista Agut in the quarter-finals.

With a return to form and a 37-12 record at Melbourne Park, former champion Wawrinka should feel confident that he can once again produce his best tennis at the opening Grand Slam of the season. The 33-year-old will meet Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the first round.

Milos Raonic
The former World No. 3 Raonic’s greatest Grand Slam performance to date may be his run the the 2016 Wimbledon final, but he has maintained great consistency at the Australian Open, too. Raonic advanced to the quarter-finals or better in three consecutive visits to the event between 2015-17. And the 6’5″ right-hander came within a set of reaching the championship match in 2016, as Andy Murray rallied from two sets to one down to beat the Canadian after four hours and three minutes. 

So if Raonic can return to the level he showed during that period, he may be able to challenge for the title once more. And quietly, Raonic is creeping back towards the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings. Last March, he fell as low as No. 40. But now World No. 17, Raonic has continued to improve his level, reaching three ATP Masters 1000 quarter-finals as well as the last eight at Wimbledon in 2018.

The Canadian No. 1 faces a stiff challenge right away in talented Aussie Nick Kyrgios, against whom he has split six FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings. But if Raonic can get past the home favourite, and potentially Wawrinka in the second round, that could be the slingshot he needs for a deep run in Melbourne.

Tomas Berdych
Berdych may have ended his 2018 ATP Tour season in June at the Fever-Tree Championships, due to a back injury. But the Czech quickly reminded fans ahead of the Australian Open that he is still capable of returning to his best level.

In the opening week of the season, Berdych reached his first final since 2017 Lyon at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open, dropping just one set en route to the championship match (l. to Bautista Agut). Berdych enters the year’s first major with great experience at Melbourne Park, having reached the quarter-finals or better in seven of the past eight years.

Berdych will meet 2018 semi-finalist Kyle Edmund in the first round, and, if he can upset the Antwerp champion, the Czech could once again make a deep run. Since reaching his first Australian Open quarter-final in 2011, Federer is the only man ranked outside the Top 10 in the ATP Rankings to beat Berdych at the event. Federer defeated Berdych in three sets en route to the title in 2017.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Like Wawrinka, Tsonga is also climbing back up the ATP Rankings following left knee surgery. The Frenchman missed seven months of action on the ATP Tour in 2018 before returning at home in Metz last September.

Following his recovery, Tsonga managed to win just one of six tour-level matches to end the season at No. 239 in the ATP Rankings. But the Frenchman wasted little time in 2019 showing that he has plenty of tennis left in him. The 33-year-old impressed crowds at the Brisbane International, beating Thanasi Kokkinakis, Taro Daniel and Alex de Minaur in straight sets to reach the last four, where he fell to in-form Russian Daniil Medvedev. Tsonga’s win against De Minaur looks even more impressive now after the Aussie went on to clinch his maiden tour-level title at the Sydney International.

Tsonga returns to the Australian Open with confidence ahead of his opening match against Martin Klizan. The 2008 runner-up Tsonga owns a 36-11 record in Melbourne, having reached the quarter-finals or better in five of his 11 appearances. If Tsonga can defeat Klizan, his next match could be against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in a repeat of the 2008 championship match.

Alexander Zverev finished 2018 in the best form possible, defeating Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal en route to his first Nitto ATP Finals title, the biggest victory of his career. The German had claimed three ATP Masters 1000 titles, and climbed as high as No. 3 in the ATP Rankings. But this was a special performance that no one will soon forget.

Zverev will now hope that such a tremendous victory will serve as a springboard to major success. According to the FedEx ATP Performance Zone, Zverev was one of the best performers on the ATP Tour at the Grand Slams in 2018, but he still has room to grow. Last year, Zverev was tied for 11th on the ATP Tour with a 10-4 record at the majors, equating to a 71.4 winning percentage.

At 2018 Roland Garros, the German became the eighth player in the Open Era to battle through three consecutive five-setters in Paris, and the first to do so since Tommy Robredo in 2013. He lost to eventual finalist Dominic Thiem in the quarter-finals. But after his win at The O2, he is ready to take another step forward.

“I don’t think I struggled during the Slams. I think there’s been a few unlucky moments for me… I’ve done really well at the French, then I got injured. I don’t know how far I could have gone,” Zverev said after triumphing in London. “The other Grand Slams, I played against a very good [Hyeon] Chung in the Australian Open, which I lost a five-set match. Wimbledon I was not prepared to play because of the injury that happened in the French. US Open I had a bad match. These things happen. It’s fine.”

Another reason for optimism is that of Zverev’s 14 career Grand Slam losses, he has fallen after winning two of the first three sets just three times, with those defeats coming at the hands of Rafael Nadal, Milos Raonic and Chung. Nadal and Raonic would go on to reach the final of the 2017 Australian Open and 2017 Wimbledon, respectively, while Chung broke through to last year’s semi-finals in Melbourne.

So it’s not as if Zverev has consistently lost advantages because of the extended best-of-five-set format at Grand Slams. And when the German has let slip leads, it has been against players who have advanced deep into the event.

To further his efforts to get over the proverbial ‘hump’, Zverev hired former World No. 1 Ivan Lendl ahead of the US Open. Lendl knows what Zverev is going through, as he reached four Slam finals before finally winning his first of eight major trophies at Roland Garros in 1984. So while their partnership didn’t yield immediate results in Flushing Meadows — Zverev lost in the third round to veteran Philipp Kohlschreiber — the German believes it might help him take the next step.

“He said that it’s a process of getting there. It’s a process of playing well at Slams,” Zverev said. “He told me before the tournament started that, Hopefully you’ll do very well at the US Open, but we’re more looking towards next year.”

One legend who is not concerned about Zverev’s results at past Slams is former World No. 1 Boris Becker, who first met the 21-year-old when Zverev was just 10.

“He played the past two years, apart from the Grand Slams [at a high level]. You wait as a young player to take the next step at the biggest of tournaments and at the Grand Slams, unfortunately, he hasn’t made a semi-final yet. But I think the way he performed throughout the whole week against the very best in tennis, looked to be very promising for 2019,” Becker told ATPTour.com after Zverev’s run at the Nitto ATP Finals. “It starts with yourself. If you gain a bit of confidence, if you start beating the best tennis players in the world day after day, you deep down start to believe that you really belong there. That’s why I think it was a big breakthrough.”

The Grand Slam Leaders
It’s no surprise that Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Nos. 1-3 in the ATP Rankings, had the best results at the majors in 2018. Djokovic, who triumphed at Wimbledon and the US Open, earned a 21-2 record, while Roland Garros champion Nadal was 21-3, and Australian Open winner Federer was 14-2 (Federer did not compete at Roland Garros).

Those three players will be the Top 3 seeds in Melbourne, just like they were as far back as 11 years ago, when Djokovic claimed his first Grand Slam title.

The trio’s success at the Slams also extends well beyond 2018, as Nadal (87.3%), Federer (86.3%) and Djokovic (86.3%) are all inside the Top 4 in career winning percentage at the majors during the Open Era, trailing only Bjorn Borg (89.8%).

Top 4 Grand Slam Performers In Open Era

Grigor Dimitrov, the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals champion, decided towards the end of 2018 to make an addition to his team to perhaps spark an eventual return to the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings. The Bulgarian hired former World No. 1 Andre Agassi as a new coach alongside Daniel Vallverdu.

After Agassi flew to Paris to help Dimitrov at the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the year, the pair retreated with Vallverdu to Agassi’s hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, where they prepared for 2019.

“We spent quality weeks, about three, three and a half weeks all together. It’s great to see that everybody is on the same page right now,” Dimitrov told ATPTour.com in Brisbane. “We see tennis, we see the game, we see sort of the whole big picture the same way. So that makes it more exciting now, and hopefully we have great success together.”

Dimitrov is not the only one excited about his partnership with Agassi. Patrick McEnroe, a 16-time tour-level doubles titlist and ESPN analyst, says that all-time great baseliner Agassi could make a real impact on the former World No. 3’s game. Agassi was known for maintaining his ground on the baseline, taking the ball early and pushing opponents around the court with his dictating style of play.

“I love to see Andre Agassi back in the mix. If he can get, what he would probably call himself, shot discipline, shot tolerance into the game of Grigor Dimitrov, that would be a huge positive because Grigor, in my mind, just has way too many options and has never really figured out how to just play meat and potatoes tennis, which is what Agassi did at his best in his prime, in his later years,” McEnroe said on a conference call. “Will Dimitrov ever be able to play exactly that style? Of course not. If Andre can get a little bit of that into his game, his mentality, that could absolutely help him.”

Chris Evert, an 18-time Grand Slam titlist, added to McEnroe’s sentiments by saying that the 20th seed at the Australian Open can benefit in more than just technique and on-court strategy from his time with Agassi.

“I think he can help Dimitrov tremendously with the mental side of the game,” Evert said. “Echoing the discipline that Agassi had, also the wisdom that he has, the training. When I think of Agassi, I picture him running up hills with sandbags on his back with [trainer] Gil Reyes [in Las Vegas]. I think he can up the intensity of the discipline and training. And Dimitrov is very respectful of former champions. I feel like he will be more motivated with Andre.”

Evert appears to be spot on with that, as Dimitrov arrived in Australia excited for what is ahead. It was as if his tough off-season work with Agassi and Vallverdu gave him a boost in every way heading into the new year. What was the experience like?

“Priceless. Nothing can put a price on that,” Dimitrov said. “We spent a crazy amount of time together, and it’s not just about the tennis, after all. The friendship and everything that we managed to build in such a time was beautiful for us.”

Dimitrov hopes that said beauty will translate into results.