Australian Open 2018: Who IS playing in Melbourne as injuries hammer field?
THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2018 should be the glorious curtain-raiser on another year of tennis but instead looks set to be as much about who is not there as who is.
Andy Murray has pulled out and flown back to the UK after failing to recover from a hip injury first suffered during the summer of 2017.
That follows the overnight withdrawal of Japan’s Kei Nishikori who is also struggling with a wrist problem he picked up last year and will miss his second consecutive Grand Slam as a result.
So with two of the world’s top players already out, who is set to take part in Melbourne and who could still take their name off the list?
The Australian Open 2018 is already missing injured players Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori
Australian Open 2018: Top 20 men’s players
1. Rafael Nadal - yet to play since knee injury forced him out of ATP World Tour Finals in November
2. Roger Federer
3. Grigor Dimitrov
4. Alexander Zverev
5. Dominic Thiem
6. Marin Cilic
7. David Goffin
Andy Murray spotted training in Abu Dhabi amid injury fears
8. Jack Sock - pulled out of Hopman Cup match on Tuesday with hip injury
9. Stan Wawrinka - still not played since knee surgery last year
10. Pablo Carreno Busta
11. Juan Martin del Potro
12. Novak Djokovic - withdrew from exhibition tournament last month on medical advice with recurrence of elbow pain
13. Sam Querrey
14. Kevin Anderson
15. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - skipped this week’s Qatar Open due to wrist injury
16. Andy Murray - OUT with hip injury
17. John Isner - pulled out of Auckland next week, although speculation that could be so he can watch his beloved University of Georgia’s football team in the national final
18. Lucas Pouille
19. Tomas Berdych
20. Roberto Bautista Agut
(No 21 Nick Kyrgios reported a knee problem yesterday while Nishikori, who is world No 22, has already withdrawn)