The Australian Open 2023 tennis tournament is here – with a new women's singles champion guaranteed to be crowned this year.
Following her dominant victory in last year's tournament, where she became the first Australian woman in over 40 years to win the Australian Open singles title, then-world number one Ash Barty announced her retirement from tennis.
A number of other well-known players won't be competing. Venus Williams had to decline a wildcard entry due to injury, and Naomi Osaka has also withdrawn from the tournament.
Osaka recently shared "a little life update for 2023", confirming that she's expecting a baby. She also opened up about her decision to take a break from the sport, saying that it has "really given me a new love and appreciation for the game I've dedicated my life to".
She added: "I realise that life is so short and I don't take any moments for granted, every day is a new blessing and adventure... one thing I'm looking forward to is for my kid to watch one of my matches and tell someone, 'that's my mom'.
"2023 will be a year that'll be full of lessons for me and I hope I'll see you guys in the start of the next one cause I'll be at Aus 2024. Love you all infinitely."
However, you should get to see world number one Iga Świątek and world number two Ons Jabeur, who faced each other in the 2022 US Open final, as well as 2022 French Open finalist Coco Gauff and 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
After a difficult 2022 repeatedly interrupted by injuries, Emma Raducanu's Australian Open participation was briefly in doubt due to an ankle injury sustained at the ASB Classic in Auckland earlier this month. Emma has won her first-round match and now faces a potentially tricky tie against in-form Coco Gauff, currently ranked seventh in the world, on Wednesday (January 18).
In the men's singles competition, reigning champion Rafael Nadal makes his seventh appearance, and is on the verge of making history once again as he aims to equal Serena Williams' open era record of 23 major titles.
Meanwhile, the returning Novak Djokovic hopes to equal Nadal's 22 major titles himself, and win his tenth Australian Open.
Roger Federer has retired from the ATP Tour, and current world number one Carlos Alcaraz won't be taking part due to injury. But Cameron Norrie and Andy Murray have both made the second round.
Here's how you can tune in.
Australian Open tennis 2023 – how to watch in the UK
Related: Netflix's Naomi Osaka documentary is not just for sports fans
Viewers in the UK can watch the Australian Open on Eurosport broadcast and online, as well as via the Discovery+ streaming service.
There are a couple of ways to access coverage. You can go direct via Discovery+, or, if you're a Sky Q, Sky Glass or Sky Stream customer, it's just been confirmed that the Discovery+ Entertainment & Sport service will be a part of the Ultimate TV pack.
Amazon Prime members, meanwhile, can order the Discovery+ Entertainment & Sport Prime Video Channel add-on for an additional £6.99 per month.
Discovery+ usually broadcasts the Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 coverage live as well as on demand. As for timings, there's a handy coverage schedule here.
You'll also be able to find coverage of other sports on Discovery+ including cycling, motorsport's World Endurance Championship (including Le Mans) and World Touring Car Cup, plus the FIM world motocross championship.
The Discovery+ Entertainment & Sport package also includes channels like Discovery, TLC, ID, and Animal Planet, as well as a load of Discovery+ original programming.
If you want to watch Discovery+ online as a Prime Video Channel rather than signing up directly, you'll first need to sign up to Amazon Prime, which has a 30-day free trial if you sign up with a unique email address.
If you've already used up your 30-day free trial, you can get Amazon Prime for £8.99 a month or £95/year, getting extras including free next-day delivery and access to Prime Video's ever-expanding library of original movies and TV shows.
Australian Open tennis 2023 – how to watch in the US
If you're in the US, ESPN has the TV rights to the Australian Open. If you don't have (or don't want) cable or satellite, you can also watch via sports streaming service ESPN+. Following a recent price rise, it now costs $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year.
If you're looking to save on a broad range of entertainment and sports content, a Disney Bundle offering gives US customers access to Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ for $12.99 per month (with ads), or $19.99 per month (with ad-free Disney+ and Hulu).
Meanwhile, streaming service Sling TV's 'Orange' tier, priced at $40 per month, also has ESPN. (Sling TV is available only to customers in the US and Puerto Rico.)
Taking the time difference into account, coverage of the daytime sessions in the US will start at around 7pm ET/4pm PT.
Best Entertainment and Tech Deals
