It is hard to believe that we are already in the latter part of January and with that the start of the Australian Open Tennis Championship tomorrow.

The first Grand Slam of the year always seems to serve up some surprises and it will be interesting to see who wilts in the Melbourne heat and who doesn’t.

In the Men’s draw, Roger Federer who is in great form, must be the favourite to capture his 5th Australian Open Singles title. Both his toughest opponents, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have not had the best starts this year. It was reported that Nadal would not be playing but he is fit and will meet Mikhail Youzhny in the opening round.

Other players to watch out for are Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and defending champion, Stanislas Wawrinka.

14th seed, Kevin Anderson has never advanced past the fourth round in a Grand Slam tournament and will be hoping to improve on that this year.

In the Men’s Doubles, Raven Klaasen, last year’s runner-up with Eric Butorac has teamed up with Leander Paes who is one of the most experienced players on the tour. The pair have started the year off well as runners-up in Chennai last week and victors in Auckland this week.

In the Ladies draw, everyone will be eyeing a Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova final, but will there be a repeat of 2013 when both players suffered shock defeats?

Williams was not on top form during the Hopman Cup where she lost to both Eugenie Bouchard and Agnieszka Radwanska, victories that would certainly have boosted their confidence going into the Australian Open.

Sharapova on the other hand started 2015 well when she won the Brisbane Open after defeating Ana Ivanovic.

One has to feel that Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova could pose the biggest threats to Williams and Sharapova’s title hopes.

Halep who lost to Sharapova in last year’s French Open final and then to Williams in the WTA Finals must be chomping at the bit to come up trumps this year. She started the year off well by winning the Shenzhen title in China.

Kvitova has also had a good start by winning the Apia International Sydney tournament on Friday.

With the temperatures set to soar in Melbourne, it’s going to be another cracker of an Australian Open.