Melbourne tennis summer kicks off with six tournaments

The Melbourne Summer Series, prelude to the Australian Open, start this Sunday at 10:30 Australian time (00:30 in the morning in Spain), with two WTA 500 tournaments that will bring together the great stars of the women's circuit and will culminate in the finals on February 6. The two planned ATP 250s will begin on Monday, on Tuesday the ATP Cup and on Wednesday another WTA 500 that was added so that the tennis players who had to remain totally confined, unable to leave their rooms to exercise, could play and prepare in advance. have been in contact with a positive case for COVID. In addition, a WTA 250 is scheduled to be played during the second week of the first Grand Slam of the season for the players who have been eliminated.

The Australian summer events, which will be held in Melbourne Park, have been named after six regions of Victoria, to promote the recovery of a state hit first by the fires of late 2019 and then by the coronavirus pandemic. In the Yarra Valley Classic (January 31 to February 6), with a team of 54 tennis players, two Spanish players will play, Garbiñe Muguruza (against Van Uytvanck or Hsieh) and Aliona Bolsava (against Raina at 00:30), and will feature great rackets like Ashleigh Barty, Sofia Kenin, Karolina Pliskova, Petra Kvitova and Serena Williams. The Gippsland Trophy will take place on the same dates, with Sara Sorribes (debuts around 02:00 against Hibino) in the middle of a constellation of stars like Simona Halep, Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. From 3 to 7, the Grampians Trophy will arrive, to which Paula Badosa is enrolled, who, however, will not be prepared because it will come out late from quarantine after being infected. On the provisional list, Bianca Andreescu, Belinda Bencic, Victoria Azarenka, Elena Rybakina, Maria Sakkari and Angelique Kerber stand out. The Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska, provisionally suspended for doping, is not targeted for any championship, although she presented an appeal to be allowed to be in the Australian Open. DAZN will be the platform that offers the broadcast of these competitions.

Order of play of the WTA 500 with Australian time (+10).

Regarding men's tournaments, who were delayed a day to compensate the locked up, will be played from February 1 to 7. The Great Ocean Road Open will have a large representation of the Navy. Pablo Andújar, Feliciano López, Pedro Martínez, Roberto Carballés, Carlos Alcaraz and Mario Vilella They will fight to win the title from favorites David Goffin, Karen Khachanov, Hubert Hurkacz and Jannik Sinner. Albert Ramos will be at the Murray River Open and Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Borna Coric are seeded. The show will be guaranteed with the presence of Aussie Nick Kyrgios. These two events will be offered live by Eurosport.

Pictures from the Great Ocean Road Open and the Murray River Open.

The best, in the ATP Cup

The ATP Cup, the country competition that the Association created in response to the Davis Cup Finals, will celebrate its second edition from February 2 to 6, one day behind the scheduled calendar for the same reason that the ATP 250 dates were moved. Spain, runner-up, will try to dethrone Serbia, who won in the 2020 final. In the group stage, The Navy team, with Rafa Nadal, Roberto Bautista, Pablo Carreño and Marcel Granollers, and Pepe Vendrell as captain, will play next Tuesday at 7:30 Spanish time against De Miñaur's Australia, and on Thursday at the same time against the Greece of Tsitsipas. Novak Djokovic will lead Serbia in the games against Canada (Tuesday at 00:00), which will feature Denis Shapovalov, and Germany (Thursday, 00:00), whose leader will be Alexander Zverev. They are also in group C Austria (Thiem), Italy (Berrettini) and France (Monfils), and in group D, Russia (Medvedev), Argentina (Schwartzman) and Japan (Nishikori). Movistar + will offer the tournament on its sports channels.

Schedules, in Australian time (+10), of the ATP Cup.