Novak Djokovic arrives in Melbourne intent on meeting Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner at a major he has won 10 times. At 38 and a former No. 1, he was the third most consistent Grand Slam performer in 2025, reaching four semifinals, three of those defeats coming to Sinner and Alcaraz, and finishing the year ranked No. 4.

“We don’t need to praise them too much,” Djokovic teased to end his Media Day press conference. “They have been praised enough. We know how good they are, and they absolutely deserve to be where they are. They are the dominant forces of the men’s tennis at the moment.

“I’m still trying to be in the mix…obviously I’m grateful to have the better ranking so that I could have eventually better draws in, you know, the first several rounds. That doesn’t affect the way I approach [a] Slam. You know, I know that my priority is really taking care of my body and trying to of course treat every match like it’s finals, but at the same time, build momentum and also not spend unnecessary energy, you know, and hopefully I can go far again and get a chance to play them.”

Djokovic, who has hinted at a shift in focus toward best-of-three events and skipped the year-end ATP Finals in Turin, has been off the tour since securing his 101st ATP title in Athens last fall. He withdrew from a warm-up tournament in Adelaide last week as part of a longer recovery and rebuilding plan.

“I took some time off, and obviously took more time to rebuild my body, because I understand that in the last couple of years, that’s what changed the most for me is it takes more time to rebuild, and it also takes more time to reset or recover,” explained Djokovic, who withdrew from a warm-up tournament in Adelaide last week.

“Obviously every day there is something here and there for me and I guess for each one of us, but generally I feel good and look forward to competing.”

His victory over Alcaraz here last year in the quarterfinals remains a highlight, though it depleted his reserves and led to an injury that ended his run in the semifinals. Still, he believes others can challenge the current top two. “I understand that, you know, Sinner and Alcaraz are playing on a different level right now from everybody else,” he said. “That’s a fact, but that doesn’t mean that nobody else has a chance. So, I like my chances always, in any tournament, particularly here.”

He downplayed milestone pressure — “24 is not a bad number.” — and said motivation comes from more than records. “I’m still living my dream, to be honest,” said Djokovic, who will face Spaniard Pedro Martinez in his first round on Monday. “Yeah, I mean, achievements are there, one of the highest motivations that you can have, of course. That’s a kind of a guiding star, but it’s not the only motivation.

“It’s passion and love for the game. It’s the interaction with people. It’s the energy that you feel when you walk out on the court. That adrenaline rush, it’s almost like a drug, to be honest.”

Jessica Pegula used media day at the Australian Open to outline plans for turning a successful podcast debut into a year-long project while also assessing a familiar on-court rival. Pegula launched The Player’s Box with Madison Keys, Jennifer Brady and Desirae Krawczyk during last year’s US Open and the group have since recorded a steady stream of episodes.

“Yeah, it has been really fun to grow in that space,” the No. 6 seed said. “I think we’re excited to kind of start a full year around the slams and big tournaments because we really only launched during the US Open and then there’s really not that much going on in the tennis world after that.

“So, I mean, we’re trying to grow it this year, have more gas, kind of base it around depending on where we are, events in the world, things going on. So, I think that will be really exciting. We’re excited.”

The show celebrated its 20th episode with Coco Gauff as the first guest. Pegula described the process as therapeutic for a group of traveling professionals and said the biggest logistical challenge remains aligning busy schedules. “We filmed a lot. We filmed a lot,” she said with a laugh. “We are going to record again tomorrow. So we’ll have some content from actually being here in Melbourne, which I think is cool.

“I don’t know, it’s exciting. I don’t think any players have really done that before. So hopefully we can give some decent insight to kind of what’s going on and how we’re feeling…As long as we can get our schedules on the same track I would say is the hardest part. But we’ll see how it goes this year. But we’re excited to have a full year of basing it around a lot of different tournaments.”

On the court, Pegula is carrying momentum from late 2025 after reaching the US Open semifinals, reaching the Dongfeng Voyah Wuhan Open final and qualifying for the WTA Finals, where she produced one of her season’s best matches against Aryna Sabalenka en route to the semifinals. The pair practiced together on Friday. “Obviously, she has beaten me more times,” Pegula said, but added that their matches tend to bring out high-level tennis and push her to improve. Pegula will open her Australian Open campaign against Anastasia Zakharova.

Venus Williams is back at the Australian Open for a remarkable 22nd main-draw appearance, this time arriving as a married woman after a Palm Beach ceremony last month with Andrea Preti. The former world No. 1 discussed the meaning of celebration and commitment at her Media Day press conference, with Preti watching from the seats.

“Well, the day is a celebration,” Williams said. “The commitment comes long before. It’s kind of like getting here. It’s the celebration of arriving and getting to actually play. The training happens long before.

“It’s just our opportunity to celebrate with family and friends and to create lasting memories.”

Williams confirmed her engagement at the start of her summer comeback at the Mubadala Citi DC Open, where Preti accompanied her to her first tournament in more than a year. At 45 years old, she won a round in both singles and doubles at that event. After a September ceremony, the couple were officially wed in a week-long celebration close to home in Palm Beach, Florida.

“I can’t describe how beautiful, calm, sacred, exciting, and exalting it was,” Venus told Vogue in December. “It was just a dream.”

Between planning the celebration with Jennifer Zabinski of JZ Events and preparing for Melbourne, Williams accepted a wild card and drew Olga Danilovic in the first round. On the training that preceded her return she said, “Yeah, I was training nonstop those three months. There were periods where I was super busy so I’d have to take a week off here or three days off there, but for the most part I was training and trying to get myself back in the groove.”

Since accepting the wild card, Williams lost two tight matches at the ASB Classic and Hobart International. She made her Australian Open debut in 1998 and, at 45, insisted her outlook remains unchanged.

“I’m definitely the same person. I definitely, like, I had my head on straight. It’s still on pretty straight.

“That’s the thing about sport is you keep stepping up to the line, and while there is nothing to prove, it’s all about the attitude and the effort. No one can control that. Controlling that part is really the win.”