According to event organisers, world number one Ash Barty will begin her 2022 season in the Adelaide International Australian Open warm-up in the first week of January.
The Wimbledon champion, who won the competition for the first time in 2020, last competed in early September at the U.S. Open before returning to Australia.
Barty will be joined at Memorial Drive by defending champion Iga Swiatek, former world number ones Garbine Muguruza and Karolina Pliskova, who were crowned WTA Player of the Year this week after winning five championships in 2021.
The two women’s warm-up tournaments, called the ‘Melbourne Summer Set,’ will be held over two weeks at Melbourne Park and will include Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka and US Open winner Emma Raducanu.
Osaka, who is currently ranked 13th in the world, also cut her 2021 season short after withdrawing from the US Open, following a year in which she withdrew from the French Open and skipped Wimbledon due to mental health difficulties.
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Raducanu, a British teenager, will use the tournament to acclimate to Australian conditions on her first visit to Melbourne Park, hoping to build on her incredible run to the title at Flushing Meadows.
Aryna Sabalenka, the world number two, and Leylah Fernandez, the runner-up at the US Open last year, will also compete in Adelaide, which will have nine of the top ten women’s players in the world rankings.
Rafa Nadal will lead the ATP 250 tournament in Melbourne from January 4 to 9, while Gael Monfils will be the main attraction in the men’s tournament in Adelaide.
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Novak Djokovic, the world number one, was named to Serbia’s ATP Cup team, although his participation in the Australian tennis season is doubtful due to vaccine requirements.
Roger Federer, who is tied for the most Grand Slam titles with Djokovic and Nadal with 20, has already stated that he will not be travelling to Australia due to knee surgery.
