Todd Woodbridge Picks Daniil Medvedev to Win the Australian Open

Australian doubles tennis legend Todd Woodbridge has backed Russian Daniil Medvedev to win his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open next month, according to World Wide of Sports. Medvedev dominated the hard court season post Wimbledon in the United States in 2019 - reaching six successive finals, including the US Open, where he lost a close five-setter to World No. 1 Rafael Nadal and climbed to No. 5 in the world rankings. 

Woodbridge says, "I'm going with Medvedev. That run he had through the US Open was just phenomenal. I think he believes, I reckon he thinks he can get into a final and take those guys out. He's also the most dynamic of that group. He's going to run all day long, he's going to keep that ball going."

For another Australian, Sam Groth, seven-time champion Novak Djokovic is his pick to win another title and close the gap with Nadal and Roger Federer on the all-time Grand Slam record. Groth says, "It's easy for me, defending champion Novak Djokovic. He's having a huge off-season at the moment. We've seen footage of him all over social media and all the training he's doing. He was so devastating in that final last year against Rafa and it's hard to go past him again."

Nadal, who has won the Australian Open just once in his career, is being backed by former World No. 4 Jelena Dokic to win in Melbourne. "Rafa won in here in 2009, he hasn't won since, but he's been in five finals. I feel like he's been a little unlucky here in Australia, playing well but getting injured. I think he deserves to win won more than anyone here. So I've got to go with Rafa."

Among the NextGen contenders, Stefanos Tsitsipas has been the one catching most of the attention, especially since he won the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals and Australian Open Quad wheelchair defending champion Dylan Alcott says the Greek youngster has a shot at winning the title in Melbourne. "I'm going to go a bit out of the box here and say Stefanos Tsitsipas. He had a great end to the year. He's a young guy with a great future. I was reading a quote from Rafael Nadal saying how big his improvement has been in the past few months. Obviously winning a slam is tough but I think he's got a shot."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2MOPtqC