We like to provide something for everyone in terms of price and so for a short-odds selection, we’ll look at the women’s singles draw.

Iga Swiatek will have her backers to win the title at a similar price to this – she was clearly the best player in the world last season, winning both the French Open and the US Open. But the world number one suffered a miserable defeat to Jessica Pegula at the United Cup last week, leaving the court in tears and then withdrawing from her next tournament with a shoulder injury.

That may well be a precaution – such withdrawals are common in the week prior to a major tournament like this one – but it’s a worry for punters.

Instead, Garcia looks worth backing. She could go all the way but a safer bet for her to reach the semis. There’s an argument to suggest the French star was actually the best player in the final few months of last season.

She won the big US Open warm-up tournament in Cincinnati before reaching the last four in New York and then completed the season with victory at the WTA Finals, a field which included Swiatek and all the other principals.

Garcia looks in a very winnable section of the draw – Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova and Anett Kontaveit are the other top-16 seeds in it – and gets the vote.

If you are a big believer in backing players riding the crest of a wave, then Fritz is certainly your man.

He enjoyed an excellent 2022 season, finishing in the top 10 for the first time. It included a maiden Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells – like the Australian Open, played on a hardcourt – and also an appearance at the prestigious ATP Finals, for which only the world’s best players qualify. He made the last four at that event, losing only to Djokovic in a tight match.

His serve is one of the best around and the conditions at Melbourne Park should help his key shot. The Greenset courts, used for the first time in 2020, saw the surface speed increase, while the light Dunlop balls should aid him too.

Aussie John Millman certainly thinks so. Upon getting hold of some of the balls to practise with last month, the tour journeyman immediately picked out Fritz as a player who would enjoy using them (along with Nick Kyrgios and Hubert Hurkacz).

That was certainly the case at the recent United Cup tournament, one in which Fritz held serve in 52 of his 54 service games as he won four of his five matches and helped USA win the trophy.
The presence of Djokovic in his half of the draw is the thorny issue but if the Serb is indeed not 100% physically, Fritz looks very well placed to take advantage.

For a bigger price, let’s turn to the other side of the draw – one featuring Medvedev and Nadal – and back Briton Norrie.

If Fritz has made a strong start to 2023, then Norrie has been even better. He went 3-0 in that United Cup event with Nadal among those beaten. Norrie then hopped over to New Zealand and, at time of writing, is about to play in the Auckland final.

Perhaps he’s overplayed given the task which lies ahead over the next two weeks but a wild card first up should help ease him into the tournament and he certainly has the form to challenge the best. Stefanos Tsitsipas is the main threat in his quarter but Norrie won their only previous hardcourt meeting.

Last year, Norrie made the semis at Wimbledon and if he goes one step further here, he’ll reward his each-way backers. It looks like a value bet.