So i’m excited about DelPo returning.  Win or lose, this guy brightens up the ATP tour and I can’t put into words how pleased I am to see him make a return to the tour.  Again, i’m not going to have any time for detailed ATP previews during the week (work is busy!), but predictions for both Sydney and Auckland are up and Sydney is below.  I’ll be previewing mens matches for the Australian Open next week… well that is at least the intention.

Del Potro gave a press conference in Sydney, of which Ivan Xie (@ fanaticaltennis) gave some highlights on Twitter.

You can also see highlights of Del Potro practising in Sydney in this ATP article HERE.  Del Potro is likely to play his first match on Tuesday as he takes on Sergiy Stakhovsky.  He has been playing down his chances majorly and it’s really difficult to envisage how he is going to get on.  I hope he comes out of it in one piece though!   The Sydney draw is actually pretty interesting with the likes of Bernard Tomic, Nick Kyrgios, Vasek Pospisil, Sam Groth, Jerzy Janowicz and Nicolas Almagro all unseeded.

The bottom half is much stronger IMO and i’d fancy Goffin to come through as the champion.  Tomic has made the final for the last two years so i’d predict him to go reasonably deep after a promising start to the year in Brisbane.  The top half is likely to fall apart with Fabio Fognini as a top seed.  Kyrgios against Janowicz is an engaging opening match and I think Kyrgios with the home crowd support could be dangerous.  I also like Vasek Pospisil in this draw after he started the season solidly with three singles wins at the Hopman Cup.

 Full predictions for 2015 will be added to the prediction archive, which already has the first week of tournaments! Two champions out of six tournaments… that’s respectable 😀 You can view the 2015 predictions archive HERE.