Busy Ozzie Week!

 AO Prep in Overdrive

At last, after two tough weeks of quarantine (with all the hoopla that entailed), every player can go wherever they want no masks no nothing. Yep. Australia has zero local C19 spread and all their cases are coming from abroad and are in isolation instantly. Normality never looked stranger!

A lot of action this week: two ATP 250, the ATP Cup and three WTA 500. Everything takes place in Melbourne but as you will see the 5 normal tournaments have names from several regions in Victoria, so I'm gonna try and find pictures for each! Let's start with the ladies, because they're not lazy and start play on Sunday. 

Yarra Valley Classic

You want Ozzie wine? Probably the best place for it is Yarra Valley

This is a WTA 500 (for 470 points ahahhaahhaaha). Draw is a bit weird with 54 players which means 10 seeds have byes: Barty, Kenin, Pliskova, Kvitova, Serena, Muguruza, Martic, Vondrousova, Vekic and Zhang. The six unfortunate (or maybe quite the opposite) seeds with no byes are Pavlyuchenkova, Ferro, Collins, Podoroska, Mladenovic and Bouzkova. Who else is there? Bogdan, Stosur, Shvedova v Flipkens, Pironkova, Gavrilova, Venus, Hsieh v AVU, Sevastova, Giorgi.

DRAW

DOUBLES DRAW

OOP

Ashleigh Barty and a wombat.

Gippsland Trophy

Spectacular coastal lagoons and lakes - Gippsland

WTA 500. Like in the other one 54 players in the draw. Top 10 seeds with a bye: Halep, Osaka, Svitolina, Sabalenka, Konta, Swatek, Mertens, Muchova, Alexandrova and Wang (Q). The 6 seeds without a bye: Zheng, Garcia, Ostapenko, Gauff, Hercog, Siegemund. Also in this one Diyas, AKS, Buzarnescu v Kasatkina, Gasparyan, Marino, SST, Tig v Babos, Petkovic, Tsurenko v Sasnovich, Begu, Boulter, Cornet v Tomljanovic.

DRAW

DOUBLES DRAW

OOP

Elise Mertens and an aboriginal levitation device.

Grampians Trophy

Mountains. They got them and call them the Grampians.

The 3rd WTA 500 of the week. This one will start on Tuesday and it is assigned for the most unfortunate players that had to endure the hard quarantine because they were in flights with C19 positive people. It is a 28 players draw. That means the top 4 seeds have byes: Andreescu, Bencic, Azarenka, Rybakina. There are 4 more seeds: Sakkari, Kontaveit, Brady and Kerber. And now from the rest here are the notables: LAF v Stephens, Jabeur, Putintseva, Kuznetsova, Watson v Kudermetova, Cirstea v Riske.

DRAW

DOUBLES DRAW

OOP

Onto the lads.

ATP Cup

Yes, this is Melbourne.

So this one I don't like. But what can you do? Four groups of three national teams in a round robin format. Each team has four dudes (two singles and a doubles team). Winner of the group goes to the SF stage. Here are the groups and the guys playing:

Group A

Serbia: Djokovic, Lajovic, Krajinovic, Cacic

Germany: Zverev, Struff, Krawieatz, Mies

Canada: Shapovalov, Raonic, Polansky, Diez

Group B

Spain: Nadal, RBA, Granollers, PCB

Greece: Tsitsipas, Pervolarakis, Kalovelonis, Tsitsipas (not the same, but this team is a riot!)

Australia: De Minaur, Millman, Peers, Saville

Group C

Austria: Thiem, Novak, Weissborn, Oswald

Italy: Berrettini, Fognini, Bolelli, Vavassori

France: Monfils, Paire, Mahut, ERV

Group D

Russia: Medvedev, Rublev, Karatsev, Donskoy

Argentina: Schwartzman, Pella, Zeballos, Gonzalez

Japan: Nishikori, Nishioka, McLachlan, Matsui

DRAW

OOP

No balalaika, no matrioshka, no vodka, yet I swear these are Russians!

Great Ocean Road Open

Yep, you want a scenic drive along an ocean coast? Great Ocean Road is for you.

ATP 250. So in theory the cream is in the ATP Cup (yes, Pervolarakis is the cream) and here are the lower ranked guys. 56 draw, which means byes for the top 8 seeds: Goffin, The Khach, Hurkacz, Sinner, Basilashvili, Opelka, Kechmanovic, Bublik. Rest of the seeds: Sandgren, Querrey, Thompson, Djere, Bedene, Andujar, Pospisil and Lopez. Also here Herbert, Cuevas, Seppi, Van De Zanschulp (yeah baby! Awesome!), Anderson.

DRAW

DOUBLES DRAW

OOP

Jannik Sinner and a clay tile.

Murray River Open

It's a river. Named Murray.

ATP 250. Another 56 draw, and, judging by the 1st and last in the draws, this one seems a bit lower, but not by much. Byes for these eight seeds: The Man, Dimitrov, FAA, Coric, Ruud, Fritz, Humbert, Evans. No byes for these other eight: Sonego, Mannarino, Cilic, ARV, Kyrgios, Gasquet, Paul, Fucsovic. Also here Chardy, Ymer v Simon, Albot, Troicki v 4U, another Ymer, Cecchinato, The Tiaf, Norrie.

DRAW

DOUBLES DRAW

OOP

Daniel Evans got the real stuff! He can put dinner on the table now!

C19 still is a thing, awful and shit so the coda will stay:

• Live and up to date stats about coronavirus

• Another site with up to date stats