Australian Open 2019: Potential route for The Big Three

The Australian Open is about to commence and Melbourne is ready to witness some epic battles between the best players of the world. This will be the first Aussie Open to have a change in the final set policy as now all it's matches will have a super tie-breaker in the final set if the score reaches to 6-6. To win, a player would need to win 10 points with a margin of at least two. This rule change will certainly deprive the fans of marathon matches like the 2012 men's final.

Former world no.1 Andy Murray suffered another setback after a lingering hip pain has forced him to foresee retirement and he felt extremely dejected at the press conference on Friday.

On the other hand, world no. 2 Rafael Nadal would be making a comeback after a knee injury made him retire from last year's US Open.

Let us look at the potential draw of the The Big 3 of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic:

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Roger Federer

Roger Federer

The world no.3 is back in action and will be looking to defend his title after winning here in the last two years. The Swiss meastro has been placed on the same side of the draw as his nemesis Rafael Nadal. His opening round match will be against Denis Istomin and he might face the athletic Gael Monfils in the third round.

Federer's potential quarter-final opponent might be Marin Cilic, and Nadal will most likely be waiting at the penultimate stage while Novak Djokovic would be the potential finalist that Federer might have to face. The defending champion will be confident after winning the Hopman Cup which would have certainly boosted his morale after a bit of a letdown at the fag end of last season.

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

World No.2 Rafael Nadal will be eyeing his second title at Melbourne Park and will be looking to put behind his past three finals losses ( 2012, 2014, 2017).

His opening round match is against the wild card James Duckworth and his potential quarter-final opponent will likely be Kevin Anderson. Federer will potentially be his semi-final opponent and Nadal will have to change his game-play to end a five-match losing streak to the defending champion.

Djokovic will most likely be his opponent at the last stage. The 2009 champion has also made some changes to his service motion and that might help him in serving faster and smash more aces.

Novak Djokovic

Djokovic is eyeing his 7th title

World no. 1 Novak Djokovic is the favourite to win the Australian Open after making a terrific comeback last year by winning Wimbledon and US Open. He has got his mojo back and has a relatively easy draw.

The Serbian's opening round match is against Mitchell Krueger and his potential quarter-final opponent will be Kei Nishikori. Alexander Zverev is most likely to be his semi-final competitor, who defeated him in last year's ATP Finals.

The six-time champion's potential opponent in the final will most likely be Nadal or Federer. The Serbian will move past Pete Sampras in major titles if he wins here and will be ranked third on the list of most number of grand slams won on the men's side.