The tennis season is back and things are hotting up as the first Grand Slam of the year draws ever closer.
With simultaneous tournaments being played in Adelaide and Melbourne currently, next week will see the majority of the world’s top players compete at the Sydney Tennis Classic.
For many, it will be their only competitive match practise before the Australian Open and could prove to be the perfect way for some to play themselves into form.
Here’s everything you need to know about the event:
What is the Sydney Tennis Classic?
The Sydney Tennis Classic is a one-off men’s and women’s tennis tournament, with the women’s competition classified as a WTA 500 event.
It will be played on a hard court surface and serve as a warm-up for many ahead of the first major of 2022 in a fortnight’s time.
Where is the Sydney Tennis Classic?
The one-off tournament will take place at the Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre, located in Paramatta.
Originally built in 1999, the centre was designed to host the tennis events for the 2000 Summer Olympics.
The main stadium inside the centre is the Ken Rosewall Arena, which can hold up to 10,500 spectators.
When is the Sydney Tennis Classic?
The competition will start on January 10th 2022 and run through till January 15th.
This will be the final WTA warm-up event before the Australian Open, which gets underway just two days later on Monday, January 17th.
Who’s playing at the Sydney Tennis Classic?
Emma Raducanu is set to start her season in Sydney. The Brit pulled out of this week’s Melbourne Summer Set, having only recently finished isolating after testing positive for Covid-19.
She was set to take on Poland's Iga Świątek, the current world number nine. But Świątek has now withdrawn from the tournament, citing a rib injury.
Instead, the British teenager will play Elena Rybakina. The star from Kazakhstan will still be a tough opponent – she is currently 14th in the world, five places higher than Raducanu.
The match will be held on Tuesday 11th, but the exact time of the clash is yet to be confirmed.
Raducanu is part of a field stacked with talent, that features 19 of the world’s top 30 players.
World number one Ashleigh Barty, Indian Wells winner Garbine Muguruza and Roland Garros victor Barbora Krejcikova will be the top three seeds for the event.
How to watch the Sydney Tennis Classic?
UK and Ireland viewers can watch coverage of the tournament on Amazon Prime Video.
Prime will show every live televised court made available to the service, replays up to 15 minutes after matches and daily highlights.