Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm christinamiot.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, January thirteenth. Peter Dutton launched the coalition's election
Speaker 1: campaign at a rally in Melbourne on Sunday, where he
Speaker 1: pledged to get Australia back on track.
Speaker 2: Week Leaders create hard times, but strong leaders create better times.
Speaker 2: And the next federal election is a sliding to a
Speaker 2: moment foundation a return Labor government in majority or minority,
Speaker 2: we'll see setbacks set in.
Speaker 1: Stone, the opposition leader said. The party's policies will come
Speaker 1: into focus in the run up to the federal election.
Speaker 1: Hospitals and schools in Queensland could be hit by massive
Speaker 1: strikes this year if the newly elected state government doesn't
Speaker 1: come to the party on pay rises. That exclusive story
Speaker 1: is live right now at the Australian dot com dot au.
Speaker 1: The Australian Open gets underway in Earnest today after Day one.
Speaker 1: Play was suspended early in the piece due to rain
Speaker 1: or was in. Nick Kurrios will make a long awaited
Speaker 1: return to Grand Slam tennis tonight and he reckons an
Speaker 1: elusive win will silence his critics for good. That's today's
Speaker 1: story no one ever died wondering what Nick Kurios thought if.
Speaker 3: I played ninety five percent of people to night on
Speaker 3: that court, I think I win. To be honest with you,
Speaker 3: Ah well, no, no man, Daniel serves straight down the throat.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've been pretty much every player that's picked
Speaker 3: up a racket. It's like I'm going out there putting
Speaker 3: on like a clown suit or something. Don't tell me
Speaker 3: how to play, Like, just sit on your seat and
Speaker 3: watch me play tennis. And anyone that thinks that I'm
Speaker 3: bad as for is just an idiot, like they've got
Speaker 3: obviously no idea.
Speaker 4: No idea.
Speaker 1: Curios has been especially vocal in his criticism of world
Speaker 1: number one Yannick Sinner in recent months.
Speaker 3: I mean, I have to be spoken about it because
Speaker 3: I don't think there's enough people that are speaking about it.
Speaker 3: People are trying to sweep under the rug, and there's
Speaker 3: not fair treatment for every single player.
Speaker 1: And I just think that Sinner will face court in
Speaker 1: Switzerland in April after he twice tested positive for a
Speaker 1: banned substance in early twenty twenty four, within weeks of
Speaker 1: a thrilling Australian Open win. The two time brand Slam
Speaker 1: winner claimed a band anabolic steroid entered his system after
Speaker 1: his messeuse used it to treat a cut finger. The
Speaker 1: International Tennis Integrity Agency, which is the sport's highest tribunal,
Speaker 1: accepted that explanation and ultimately decided not to ban Yannick Sinner,
Speaker 1: but the World Antidoping Agency or WADA, will challenge the
Speaker 1: decision in an appeal said to be heard behind closed doors,
Speaker 1: and Nick Kurios reckons it's all pretty shady. In a
Speaker 1: post on x formerly known as Twitter, he said the
Speaker 1: appeal should be heard in public if Sinner truly has
Speaker 1: nothing to hide. Now, the controversy is center court at
Speaker 1: the Australian Open, when Nick Kurios and Janick Sinner will
Speaker 1: play first round matches on Monday. Sinna is taking it
Speaker 1: in his stride.
Speaker 5: I haven't done anything wrong. That's why I'm still here.
Speaker 5: That's why I'm supplaying. I don't want to respond on
Speaker 5: what Nick said or what other player says. I think
Speaker 5: the most important part is to have my people around
Speaker 5: me who I can't trust people They exactly know what
Speaker 5: happened and that's it.
Speaker 1: And Curios, well, he couldn't be more confident.
Speaker 3: I'm very confident in myself that I'm not going to
Speaker 3: be accidentally putting something in my system.
Speaker 1: It's been three years since Nick Kurios last played in
Speaker 1: a Grand Slam.
Speaker 2: He was bundled out in an upset today in an
Speaker 2: epic five set match, he lost to the twenty seventh
Speaker 2: seed Russian Karen Katchanov.
Speaker 1: He's currently unranked after battling a string of injuries, but
Speaker 1: he said this week he's feeling good.
Speaker 3: This morning was out there feeling pretty good when I'm
Speaker 3: just taking a day by day and just enjoying all
Speaker 3: the moments again to being part of the tournament.
Speaker 1: And what Nick Curios wants more than anything is that
Speaker 1: elusive Grand Slam Singles title.
Speaker 4: The one place is always underperformed at is the Grand slams.
Speaker 1: Will Swanton is a senior sports writer with The Australian.
Speaker 1: He's in Melbourne for the Open.
Speaker 4: The way he says it is that the only way
Speaker 4: to shut everyone up, as in his critics, is to
Speaker 4: go well at the majors. The driving force for this comeback,
Speaker 4: which might only be a year, as he says, is
Speaker 4: to push to win majors. He's reached the Wimbledon final,
Speaker 4: which is terrific. So a Wimbledon final is a Wimbledon final.
Speaker 4: But really apart from that, three quarter finals in twelve
Speaker 4: or thirteen years. But the great proving ground in tennis
Speaker 4: is the majors and his record is really poor. So
Speaker 4: that's the big challenge for him. He'll be fascinating to
Speaker 4: see if he can get down and dirty for the
Speaker 4: two weeks of a major, his big problem being he's
Speaker 4: injured at the moment.
Speaker 1: Nick Kurios came up against tennis's big four Rafael Nadal,
Speaker 1: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray. But after decades
Speaker 1: of incomparable domination, a changing of the guard is underway. Nadal, Federer,
Speaker 1: and Murray have all bowed out with dozens of Grand
Speaker 1: Slams between them.
Speaker 4: They just dominated the majors for the last fifteen years.
Speaker 4: Nick said it felt like it was virtually impossible to
Speaker 4: win a major because coming from mix lower position in
Speaker 4: the draw, he would probably have to beat two, maybe
Speaker 4: three of those guys, and like Andy Murray, Andy Murray
Speaker 4: could not have tried harder and more to win majors,
Speaker 4: and he only won a small number compared to those guys.
Speaker 4: So if it's hard for Andy Murray to win majors
Speaker 4: in that era, definitely hard for Nick And so you
Speaker 4: can see where he's coming from the other side of
Speaker 4: it is he definitely didn't always give himself the best chance.
Speaker 4: You know's very hot and cold with preparation. He used
Speaker 4: to have that great kind of love hate relationship with tennis,
Speaker 4: which I think now in the wise old years of
Speaker 4: being twenty nine, I think he's falling in love with tennis.
Speaker 4: But Nick at is best as a tennis player, was
Speaker 4: as good as those guys. He's played some brilliant matches
Speaker 4: at the Australian Open. But the great challenge of a major,
Speaker 4: and the great beauty of it is you have to
Speaker 4: play a great match on one day to be a
Speaker 4: good player. Then you have to come back two days
Speaker 4: later and do it again. That cycle for two weeks,
Speaker 4: and it's so hard to do. When your body gets
Speaker 4: more tired, your mind gets more tired, the pressure grows
Speaker 4: as you go along. But now it was twenty nine,
Speaker 4: you can still be peaking when you're thirty five. In tennis.
Speaker 4: You've got these two young guys in Sinner and Alcaaz
Speaker 4: who have taken over there. Now the guy is defeat,
Speaker 4: but it doesn't have that same unbeatable aura that the
Speaker 4: Big three plus Andy Murray had, so we've still got time.
Speaker 4: If he knuckled down and at a proper crack, he
Speaker 4: can one hundred percent play as well as Alcarez a sinner,
Speaker 4: but it's just a matter of how much he wants
Speaker 4: it and how the body holds up. So my gut
Speaker 4: feeling is it will be a stretch for him to
Speaker 4: get through the Australian Open in one piece, let alone
Speaker 4: win it.
Speaker 1: Nick Curios will take on twenty three year old Scott
Speaker 1: Jacob Burnley on Monday night in the first round of
Speaker 1: his home country's Grand Slam. But could a loss in
Speaker 1: those early rounds signal the end of his Grand Slam dreams.
Speaker 4: It's impossible to know, and that's the whole beauty of it.
Speaker 4: The number one thing obviously that wipes out any athlete
Speaker 4: in any sport is the physical side of it, and
Speaker 4: the body packs it in. So if his wrist doesn't
Speaker 4: come basically one hundred percent good, there could be a
Speaker 4: short stay for him back on the tour. He will
Speaker 4: love being back on that kind of stage. He's conducting
Speaker 4: everyone like it's an orchestra, and that's the kind of
Speaker 4: thing he wants again. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 4: a professional athlete, you're there to win, and in the
Speaker 4: tournaments that really matter, he's just fallen short time and again.
Speaker 1: Coming up Novak Djokovic's curious return to the Australian Open.
Speaker 1: In a pandemic of strange moments, this one was up there.
Speaker 6: Australia's Immigration minister has counseled Nevakdrokovic's visa for a second time,
Speaker 6: just three days before the world number one player is
Speaker 6: due to play in the Australian Open in or. The
Speaker 6: Australian government says it is on public health grounds, as
Speaker 6: the row over his right to remain in the country
Speaker 6: unvaccinated continues.
Speaker 1: And now the current world number seven has claimed in
Speaker 1: an interview with GQ magazine that he was poisoned while
Speaker 1: he was being held in hoteled attention in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 1: He said he discovered high levels of lead and mercury
Speaker 1: in his blood upon returning to Serbia after eating the
Speaker 1: food provided to him in Melbourne. Naturally, people had questions,
Speaker 1: but on Friday, Djokovic refused to elaborate.
Speaker 5: I've done that interview many months ago, so I would
Speaker 5: appreciate not talking more in detail about that, as I
Speaker 5: would like to focus on the tennis and why I'm here.
Speaker 1: Novak Djokovic arrives in Australia, this time off the back
Speaker 1: of a Golden Slam. That's when an individual player wins
Speaker 1: all four Grand Slams plus an Olympic gold medal. It's
Speaker 1: a feat only achieved by a handful of other tennis greats,
Speaker 1: including Serena Williams and Andre Agacy. Now, the thirty seven
Speaker 1: year old Serb will attempt to secure a record eleventh
Speaker 1: Australian Open win. Here's will Swanton.
Speaker 4: He is a marvel of unwavering and ongoing desire just
Speaker 4: to keep winning. And that's where it comes from. You
Speaker 4: watch Novak hit a tennis ball, and he doesn't necessarily
Speaker 4: hit the ball any better than one hundred guys out
Speaker 4: there on the practice courts. But you get him into
Speaker 4: a match, and that will to win, and that will
Speaker 4: to prove himself and the love of the battle and
Speaker 4: the mental side of it doesn't seem to be slowing
Speaker 4: up at all. But what is happening is he's starting
Speaker 4: to lose to guys who he would never lose to,
Speaker 4: and that's the first sign that an aging tennis player
Speaker 4: is on the slide. There's not so much the fact
Speaker 4: that he loses to Alcoraz in a Wimbledon final. There's
Speaker 4: early round defeats that kind of popping up. That's a
Speaker 4: funny one. Who's look for the first time that I
Speaker 4: can think of, Novak's the underdog here, the kind of null,
Speaker 4: worldly vecern who's trying to hold off the young punks.
Speaker 4: So I think there'll be a bit of sentimental favoritism
Speaker 4: because for all the pantomime villainy over the years and
Speaker 4: all that kind of thing, I think you have to
Speaker 4: admire someone like that for not resting on his laurels
Speaker 4: and not thinking he's done enough. So I think at
Speaker 4: times he's really tried to win us over. It hasn't
Speaker 4: quite happened, but I think this year, when perhaps he's
Speaker 4: past trying to win us over, I think you probably will.
Speaker 1: Will Swanton is a senior reporter with The Australian and
Speaker 1: you can catch all the action from the Australian Open
Speaker 1: anytime at the Australian dot com dot au