Fresh off his semi-final run at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha, 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka is ready to continue his strong start to the 2020 season at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

The 34-year-old Wawrinka, who beat Rafael Nadal in the 2014 final, is the 15^th seed at the season’s first Grand Slam and will meet Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia & Herzegovina in the first round.

“It’s another year and still after all these years on Tour, I’m always very happy to be here. I prepared very well and I feel good here. I practised all week, feeling good, and I hope to get a good start into this tournament,” Wawrinka said.

“It’s the first Grand Slam of the season. It’s summer here and we come from the European winter. It’s more or less the first time we see the sun here usually. There are many fans here and a great atmosphere all day on all courts. I won my first Grand Slam here. I also like the conditions and am happy to be back here.”

Dzumhur, a three-time ATP Tour champion currently ranked No. 92 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, leads their ATP Head2Head series 2-1, which includes their most recent contest last year on clay in Geneva. The two split their hard-court meetings in Dubai (2017) and St. Petersburg (2018).

“I know Dzumhur well, I played him several times. I have lost and won against him in the past. He plays mostly from the baseline, moves well, returns well, does everything well. I think it will depend on how I play and if I can impose my game. I hope that I can do that,” Wawrinka said.

The Swiss last won a Grand Slam title at the 2016 US Open, but he remains the last player outside the Big Three of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer to have won a major championship. The legendary trio have won the past 12 Grand Slam men’s singles titles (Nadal, five; Djokovic, four; Federer, three).

Wawrinka, however, will bring confidence from his Doha semi-final. The Swiss fell to Frenchman Corentin Moutet in three sets.

“It was the first tournament, and of course you always want to improve and do better. I had my chances, which I didn’t take sadly,” Wawrinka said. “Nevertheless it was a good start to the year. I’m very happy about my 10 days in Doha before coming here… I’m happy about the level of my game and how practice goes. Now I can’t wait to play my first match.”

Australian Max Purcell reached a career milestone at the Australian Open on Friday, qualifying for his first Grand Slam main draw with a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Jozef Kovalik.

The Sydney native, who edged back-to-back three-set matches to reach the final qualifying round, landed 24 winners and converted four break points to cruise into his first major championship after 72 minutes. Purcell entered the tournament with one win from seven previous Grand Slam qualifying encounters.

Joining Purcell in the main draw will be Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Prajnesh Gunneswaran 7-6(2), 6-2 in 80 minutes. Gulbis will be making his 10th appearance in the main draw at the first Grand Slam of the season, where he has reached the second round on two occasions.

Norbert Gombos did not drop a set through his three qualifying matches, booking his spot with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Pedja Krstin. Gombos will be joined in the main draw by Peter Gojowczyk, who landed 21 winners to defeat Constant Lestienne 6-2, 6-3 in 65 minutes.

In second-round action, top seed Dennis Novak beat Filip Horansky 6-1, 6-4 to move one win away from a place in the main draw. Novak, who cracked the Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time on Monday, will meet Hiroki Moriya of Japan. Moriya overcame 23rd seed Steven Diez 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 37 minutes.

Kimmer Coppejans moved past third seed Brayden Schnur of Canada 7-6(3), 6-3. The 25-year-old will meet Christopher Eubanks in the final qualifying round.

Fellow Top 5 seeds Emil Ruusuvuori and Andrej Martin were also defeated. Elliot Benchetrit outlasted fourth seed Ruusuvuori 6-4, 0-6, 7-6(3), while Mathias Bourgue edged fifth seed Martin 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-5.

South African Lloyd Harris reached his first ATP Tour final on Friday at the Adelaide International, battling past American Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3 in two hours and nine minutes.

“I’m so excited to be in the final here in Adelaide. Just ecstatic with the match I played,” Harris said. “Looking forward to [the final] tomorrow.”

Last year, Harris made his first tour-level quarter-final and semi-final in Chengdu as a lucky loser. But the World No. 91 has gone one step further in Adelaide, blasting 13 aces and winning 85 per cent of his first-serve points against the man who is one spot ahead of him in the FedEx ATP Rankings.

This was the first ATP Tour semi-final between two qualifiers since Roberto Carballes Baena beat Andrej Martin in Quito in 2018. Harris was on the back foot towards the end of the second set, despite recouping a break to force a tie-break, as Paul was taking control of rallies more often and not allowing the South African to dictate play.

But Harris, who defeated fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta and sixth seed Cristian Garin earlier in the ATP 250 tournament, was undeterred. He lost just two first-serve points in the decider en route to his victory. Harris will play second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime or third seed Andrey Rublev for the trophy.

New balls, please…

With the Australian Open on the horizon, an Infosys ATP Insights deep dive of serve performance with new balls over the past five seasons uncovers how players take advantage of the fresh, faster balls on hard, grass and clay courts.

Serving With New Balls – Holding Serve 2015-2019

1. Roger Federer Leads On Hard Courts
Breaking Roger Federer’s serve on hard courts when he is serving with new balls is an almost insurmountable task. Federer has lost serve only 11 times out of 203 service games on hard court in the past five years when serving with fresh balls. Overall, John Isner has won the most service games on hard with new balls with 214 service games, while Dominic Thiem has played the most, with 233 service games.

The five best performers holding serve with new balls on hard (minimum 20 attempts) in the past five seasons:

1. Roger Federer = 94.58% (192/203)
2. Ivo Karlovic = 94.01% (157/167)
3. Nick Kyrgios = 93.79% (166/177)
4. Reilly Opelka = 93.24% (69/74)
5. John Isner = 92.24% (214/232)

2. Milos Raonic Is Perfect On Grass Courts
In the past five years, Milos Raonic has played 43 matches on grass and served with new balls 64 times. He has impressively won every one of those service games. Overall, Raonic has won 70 per cent (49/70) of his matches on grass throughout his career, proving to be his most successful surface. Surprisingly, he has not yet won a grass-court event, but was a finalist at Wimbledon and Queens in 2016, and Stuttgart in 2018.

The five best performers holding serve with new balls on grass (minimum 20 attempts) in the past five seasons:

1. Milos Raonic = 100% (64/64)
2. Ivo Karlovic = 98.31% (58/59)
3. Matteo Berrettini = 95.45% (21/22)
4. Kevin Anderson = 94.92% (56/59)
5. Marin Cilic = 94.74% (54/57) 

3. John Isner Surprises On Clay Courts
You would not naturally think of the 34-year-old American Isner as a leader in clay-court performance metrics, but his form is unsurpassed on the surface with new balls, holding serve 95.24 per cent (60/63) of the time. In fact, Isner’s hold percentage on clay with new balls is better than on grass or hard.

John Isner Winning Percentage Holding Serve With New Balls (2015-19)

The five best performers holding serve with new balls on clay (minimum 20 attempts) in the past five seasons:

1. John Isner = 95.24% (60/63)
2. Kevin Anderson = 93.75% (45/48)
3. Hyeon Chung = 91.43% (32/35)
4. Steve Johnson = 91.07% (51/56)
5. Juan Ignacio Londero = 89.47% (34/38)

Serving with new balls offers a distinct advantage for the server. Breaking it down by the surface helps identify which players naturally perform better on which surface.

Stefanos Tsitsipas punctuated his 2019 season in the greatest way possible, winning the Nitto ATP Finals in London, marking the biggest title of his career. The sixth seed at the Australian Open, Tsitsipas will now try to build on that great finish in the year ahead.

“It was a great end of the year, coming in London strong from the very beginning, full of confidence. It just gave me so much to work around with. I felt very flexible in my way of thinking,” Tsitsipas said. “At the end I left from London with the trophy, which I couldn’t really believe what just happened. It was a great, great week with good fan support, a good team around me.”

The Greek had already shown his potential, winning three prior ATP Tour titles and reaching two ATP Masters 1000 finals. But defeating Roger Federer, Daniil Medvedev, Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev in one week broke new ground for the 21-year-old.

“I remember playing the Next Gen Finals [in 2018] and thinking to myself that the young generation I’m currently facing at the Next Gen ATP Finals is the future,” Tsitsipas said. “Players are young, they’re ambitious, they play so well. There’s nothing to fear of going out and playing with the elder players. So for me, that was very crucial to be in that kind of thinking and that kind of mindset.”

That paid dividends, as Tsitsipas is now not only the future, but the present. He certainly made an impression on those around him, including mentor Marcos Baghdatis.

“He came on end of the year finding again his rhythm,” Baghdatis said. “I find it incredible what he did. For me, Stef is kind of a genius.”

Tsitsipas’ run in London didn’t come out of nowhere, though. It was the high point of a steady progression that began at the end of 2018, when he won the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. Just two months later, he reached the Australian Open semi-finals, upsetting Federer in Melbourne.

“The fact that the semi-final, you start off with a bang beating Federer and a semi-final finish at the Australian Open was huge and then I think the momentum just went on from there,” said Mark Philippoussis, an 11-time ATP Tour champion. “Finishes strong at The O2. I felt like we saw him raise his game a level and really see what he’s capable of.”

After his big win to end 2019, Tsitsipas took some well-earned time away from the court to reset, visiting Iceland, Cyprus and Oman before heading to Dubai for his off-season training.

“It’s rare that I get to do these kinds of things,” Tsitsipas said. “I’m usually very focussed and concentrated on my tennis, so I really cherish the fact that I’m able to travel and go to places away from tennis and not be concentrated on tennis despite my love for the sport.”

Now Tsitsipas is ready to try to progress even more in 2020.

[4] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) vs. Frances Tiafoe (USA) — Head2Head: Medvedev 1-0
Memories of shirt-ripping celebrations remain vivid for Frances Tiafoe, who beat Kevin Anderson and Grigor Dimitrov en route to the 2019 Australian Open quarter-finals. With that run, the American broke into the Top 30 of the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time, but upon his return to Melbourne Park this year, Tiafoe will now be remembering not to turn his back on Daniil Medvedev, his first-round opponent, if he is to kick-start his 2020 ATP Tour season.

Medvedev, who put together a 20-3 record on the North American summer hard-courts, culminating in a run to the US Open final, beat Tiafoe 6-2, 7-5 at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C. Tiafoe, at 4-5 in the second set, brought Medvedev to the net with a drop shot, before flicking a backhand volley past his opponent and turning his back on the court. But, with impressive speed, Medvedev changed direction to track down the ball and chip it into the vacant space for a winner.

World No. 4 Medvedev started the year for Team Russia at the ATP Cup, beating three Top 20 players in five matches, while Tiafoe looks to bounce back from first-round exits in Doha and Auckland in the first two weeks of this year.

Reilly Opelka (USA) vs. [12] Fabio Fognini (ITA) — Head2Head: 1-1
Power meets finesse as Reilly Opelka, who hit 1,023 aces and won 91 per cent of his service games in 2019, faces off against Fabio Fognini, whose best performance in 12 Melbourne appearances came two years ago with a fourth-round run (l. to Berdych). Opelka, at 6’11”, has a 13” height advantage over Fognini and in their past two matches has hit 49 aces — 26 aces in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 victory in the 2019 US Open first round and 23 aces in the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid, which Fognini won 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3. World No. 12 Fognini arrives at the Australian Open after the birth of his second child, a daughter, Farah, on 23 December. He has got off to a 1-3 start in 2020.

[9] Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP) vs. Feliciano Lopez (ESP) — Head2Head: 2-2
Coming off the best season of his career, Roberto Bautista Agut has started 2020 with a bang, going 6-0 for Team Spain en route to the ATP Cup final. Next week, at Melbourne Park, last year’s quarter-finalist comes up against a fellow Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez, who is appearing in a record-extending 72nd consecutive Grand Slam championship. While they’ve met on four previous occasions, Lopez has won both of their hard-court clashes at the 2014 Rogers Cup and 2016 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. It will be a contrast of styles as Bautista Agut will look to pit his baseline game against the attacking nature of Lopez, who, at 38, is hoping to recall memories of his 2012 and 2015 runs to the fourth round.

Sam Querrey (USA) vs. [25] Borna Coric (CRO) – Head2Head: Coric 1-0
It wasn’t until his fifth visit that Borna Coric tasted victory at the Australian Open, en route to the fourth round last year. But 12 months on, Coric returns looking to rebuild his confidence having ended 2019 on a six-match losing streak, following on from reaching his sixth ATP Tour final at the St. Petersburg Open (l. to Medvedev) in October. With a 1-3 mark in 2020, heading into Melbourne, the World No. 28 squares off against Sam Querrey for the second time. In their only previous meeting at 2015 Roland Garros, Coric won 7-6(8), 6-3, 0-6, 6-3. The 32-year-old Querrey has beaten eight Top 30 players since rising to No. 11 in the FedEx ATP Rankings in February 2018, and with a big serve, that reaped 690 aces in 2019, the American’s game may well test the defensive baseliner, Coric.

[11] David Goffin (BEL) vs. Jeremy Chardy (FRA) – Head2Head: 1-1
Having dropped to No. 33 on 17 June, David Goffin set about rising up the FedEx ATP Rankings in the second half of last year, reaching two ATP Tour finals at the Grass Court Open Halle (l. to Federer) and the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati (l. to Medvedev) and recording 22 match wins. The Belgian, who reached the 2017 quarter-finals in Melbourne, will hope to beat Jeremy Chardy for the second time in three meetings, having beaten the Frenchman at Wimbledon in July, and begin his push back into the Top 10. Chardy, who was also a quarter-finalist at the major in 2012 (l. to Murray), completed 2019 on a high with victory over No. 4-ranked Medvedev en route to the Last 16 at the Rolex Paris Masters in November. He has beaten three Top 10 players at major championships (No. 7 Nalbandian at the 2008 Roland Garros), No. 7 Juan Martin del Potro at the 2013 Australian Open and No. 7 David Ferrer at 2018 US Open), and last beat a Top 20 opponent, the recently retired Tomas Berdych, last year at Roland Garros.