John McEnroe names two surprise contenders to beat Novak Djokovic to Aus Open title
Novak Djokovic is hot favourite to win the Australian Open but John McEnroe has got his eye on a couple of dark horses.
John McEnroe has identified two in-form players who could cause an upset by winning the Australian Open this month. But the outspoken American still believes that Novak Djokovic will be the man to beat once more in Melbourne.
The world No. 1 starts the defence of his title next week as he goes in search of a record 25th Grand Slam and an 11th Australian Open crown. The Serb beat Stefanos Tsitsipas in last year's final before going on to win both the French Open and US Open to cap off another phenomenal season at the top of the men's game.
McEnroe, a seven-time Grand Slam winner himself, is in Melbourne on commentary duties for ESPN alongside Mary Joe Fernandez. When the 64-year-old Wimbledon great was asked to name a player who could sneak through to the final and cause a real upset, he told reporters: "Well, maybe I’ll talk about the men and Mary Joe can talk about the women. I don’t see anyone sneaking through, to be honest. I see a handful of guys, eight guys, that could win it. Obviously, Novak being by far, if he’s healthy, the guy that would be the big favourite.
"If I had to pick one guy that could potentially sneak through, if you want to call it that, and I’m really happy that I see this late in his career, that he has the potential to do something that he’s never even come close to doing, I would pick Grigor Dimitrov.
"The guy looks as good as the top five or six guys. I would consider that completely sneaking through, even though he’s like 12 or 14 in the world.
"Then the obvious: Medvedev, Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic, Rune, Zverev. Tsitsipas has been in the finals there a couple times. Those guys. Then Ben Shelton I believe is going to win majors."
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Bulgarian Dimitrov has got his 2024 campaign off to a flier by winning the Brisbane International last week. The 32-year-old beat Holger Rune 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 in the final to move up to World No. 13 and will now fancy his chances of a deep run in the first grand slam of the year.
Considering other possible outsiders, McEnroe added: "Sebastian Korda, would you call it sneaking through? Maybe he’d be sneaking through. I don’t know if physically he’s ready to make that move yet.
"He’s got an unusual problem: he needs to put on weight, get stronger. Normally you are always like, I have to get really fit. Still I’d be surprised not to see the top guys do it."