When Monica Seles arrived in Melbourne in January 1996 to chase her fourth AO title, her biggest obstacles were the mental scars from a courtside stabbing three years earlier.
More than seven years after her victory over an up-and-coming Ash Barty at Wimbledon, Russian-born Daria Kasatkina will fly the Australian flag in her first home grand slam.
From humble beginnings in a highly segregated city, Arthur Ashe rose to become the first, and only, Black man to win a Wimbledon singles title – on July 5, 1975.
With each January comes an Australian Open, and with each Australian Open comes another controversy involving Novak Djokovic, the tournament’s most successful, and villainous, figure.
