Tennis 2019 preview: Comebacks to dominate start of season before new generation attempt to takeover

A number of familiar faces will look to return to the top in 2019

Andy Murray hopes to make a full return in 2019 (Getty)

The Christmas decorations are still up and New Year’s Eve is not yet upon us, but for some of the world’s leading tennis players the 2019 season is already under way. Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and the Williams sisters are playing in an exhibition event which begins on Thursday in Abu Dhabi, while Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber will be among those competing in the Hopman Cup mixed team competition which starts in Perth on Saturday.

Nearly all the other top players will be in action next week for the official start of the men’s and women’s tours. Nadal, Andy Murray and Kyle Edmund will be topping the men’s bill in Brisbane, Djokovic and Dominic Thiem will be in Doha and Kevin Anderson and Marin Cilic will head for Pune.

Among the women, Petra Kvitova, Naomi Osaka and Johanna Konta will be three of the headline acts in Brisbane, Wozniacki, Venus Williams and Victoria Azarenka will be in Auckland and Maria Sharapova and Jelena Ostapenko will be on parade in Shenzhen. With the Australian Open starting in Melbourne in less than three weeks’ time, the goal for all players will be to get as much court time into their legs as possible.

Given the successes of so many of the younger players in the latter stages of 2018, when Zverev, Edmund, Karen Khachanov, Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka all won significant titles, the focus for the start of 2019 might have been expected to be on the next generation. However, the the start of the new season will be more about the comebacks of a number of the old guard, several of whom will be in much better shape than they were at the end of this year’s Australian Open.

Andy Murray, who had just had hip surgery, and Serena Williams, who was preparing to return to competition as a mother, never made it to the start line in Melbourne this year. Nadal finished the tournament nursing a new hip injury, Djokovic ended it realising that he would need an operation to cure his elbow problem and Stan Wawrinka was appreciating how much of a struggle his comeback would be following knee surgery.

Andy Murray of Great Britain (Getty Images)

Federer, who won his 20th Grand Slam singles title in Australia, was one of the few established big names to finish the tournament in good order.

This year, however, nearly all the old guard appear to be heading for Melbourne in much better shape. Djokovic, having won Wimbledon and the US Open and reclaimed the world No 1 ranking, will be raring to go at what has been his most successful Grand Slam event. Nadal, who had ankle surgery last month at the end of a season in which he completed only seven tournaments because of a succession of injuries, has been working hard at his academy in Majorca, while Wawrinka’s form picked up through 2018.

In the men’s game the biggest question mark hangs over Murray, who played only 12 matches in 2018 after beginning his stop-start comeback in June. After bringing an early end to his season in September, Murray spent several weeks working in Philadelphia with Bill Knowles, a “reconditioning specialist” who has played a big part in the comebacks from injury of a number of athletes, including Tiger Woods and John Terry.

In the few matches that he played in 2018 there were signs that Murray had lost none of his extraordinary ability or his will to win. Now we will see whether he has recovered the physical abilities that took him to the top of his sport.

Given the remarkable lengths to which he has gone to regain his fitness, it seems reasonable to assume that the 31-year-old Scot believes he can compete again for the very highest honours, though it remains to be seen whether he can match the success that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all enjoyed after lengthy breaks from the game.

Murray’s schedule shows that he is expecting a busy 2019. The former world No 1 opens his campaign in Brisbane next week and after the Australian Open is expected to play indoors in Montpellier and Marseille and outdoors in Dubai before heading for the “Sunshine Double” of Indian Wells and Miami. In some years in the past Murray has not competed anywhere between Melbourne and Indian Wells.

Can Williams return to the top? (Getty)

As she has been for the best part of two decades, Serena Williams will once again be the focal point of media interest in the women’s game. The 37-year-old American has not competed since her remarkable run-in with the umpire, Carlos Ramos, in the US Open final in September and is entering only exhibition events, including the Hopman Cup, before the Australian Open.

However, Williams has proved in the past that she can hit the ground running and her hunger for success appears to be as great as ever. “I always have crazy big goals but I like to keep them to myself,” Williams told The National in Abu Dhabi last week. “I think keeping them a bit of a secret helps me do the best I can.”

The most notable feature of the off-season in the women’s game has been the coaching merry-go-round. In one of the most surprising changes Kerber parted company with Wim Fissette, who had guided the German to her Wimbledon triumph, and replaced him with Rainer Schuttler. Fissette was not out of work for long as he reunited with Azarenka, one of his growing number of former players.

Svitolina, who enjoyed the biggest win of her career at the WTA Finals in Singapore in October, has split with Thierry Ascione and made the 25-year-old Briton Andrew Bettles, formerly her hitting partner, her main coach. Johanna Konta has brought in Dmitry Zavioloff to replace Michael Joyce, who has now teamed up with Eugenie Bouchard, and Madison Keys is working with Jim Madrigal, Tennys Sandgren’s former coach. Maria Sakkari, having parted company with Thomas Johansson, has recruited Mark Petchey, while the highly experienced David Taylor will coach Elise Mertens.

Svitolina has a new coach (Getty)

However, the most significant coaching change could be in Simona Halep’s entourage. Darren Cahill, who guided the Romanian to her first Grand Slam title at this year’s French Open and to the top of the world rankings, is taking a year-long break from coaching in order to spend more time with his family. Halep has yet to bring in a replacement for the Australian.