Paes meets wild card in first round

Agassi is only one of five players to have captured all four Grand Slam crowns Sampras hasn’t achieved that and should he reach the Australian Open final on January 30 he will become the first since Rod Laver to string together four consecutive Slam finals.

FASTER IS BETTER: Faster court conditions aligned with a lighter, speedier ballis tilting the advantage toward big servers this year, particularly if Melbourne Park bakes under high temperatures, which have reached 42 Celsius in the past.

That puts Mark Philippoussis and Richard Krajicek in with enhanced chances, although Philippoussis is likely to bump into Agassi, and Krajicek may have a similar date with Sampras.

Martina Hingis is chasing history in the women’s singles, a win here will give her four straight Australian titles, the most in the Open’s post-1969 era. Hingis, the youngest to have won the Australian title at 16 years three months in 1997, is the top seed and is expected to have to fight off firstly US Open champion Serena Williams in the semi-finals and rankings rival Lindsay Davenport in the final.

Second seed Davenport heads the bottom half with France’s Amelie Mauresmo, a runner-up to Hingis last year, a potential finalist.