Multiple Grand Slam champions Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova will be the key attractions for the Australian Open draw on Thursday January 11th.
For the first time in the tournament’s history, the draw will be televised which will take place inside the Margaret Court Arena.
Traditionally, the draw takes place on Friday and last year’s champions have the honor of bringing back their trophies and being present at the draw ceremony.
However, last year’s women’s singles champion Serena Williams announced her withdrawal from the first Grand Slam tournament of the year.
It marks the first time in Williams’ career that she has missed four successive Grand Slams. She gave birth to her daughter last September but she is not ready to compete.
However, she did compete in Abu Dhabi against French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in an exhibition match which she lost in three sets.
The 2016 champion Angelique Kerber is currently competing in Sydney, and Williams’ elder sister Venus, who she beat in last year’s final to clinch her 23rd Grand Slam singles title, was also competing in Sydney, but lost to Kerber in three sets.
The doors at open at 6:15pm for fans to join with a gold coin donation being taken which will go towards the Australian Tennis Federation. The draw itself will start at 7pm local time, which is 8am UK time, and it will be shown live and exclusively on Eurosport.
Federer is the favourite to clinch the title for a sixth time as there are doubts regarding the fitness of world number one Rafael Nadal, and six-time champion Novak Djokovic.
2008 champion Sharapova will return to Melbourne Park for the first time in two years as she lost to Serena at the quarterfinal stage in her last appearance.
Shortly after the tournament she tested positive for meldonium, and served a 15-month ban suspension.
Tournament director Chris Tiley expressed his delight at the new draw format.
“We’re going to give it a go. We’re going to have the Tie Break Tens on Wednesday night, the draw on Thursday night and there’s another event we’re going to announce for Friday pretty soon.
“We’ve got the FightMND concert on Sunday and the Kids Tennis Day on Saturday.
“We just keep on building around the Australian Open.
“We’re going to have a magnificent lead-in to what should be a fantastic event.”
