By Daily Sports on October 11, 2017

First time mother Serena Williams is set to return to the court to play at the Australian Open in January, according to tournament director Craig Tiley.

Tiley said she is expected to be joined by British number one Murray, 30, who has not played since July when a hip injury hampered him in a quarter-final defeat at Wimbledon.

Williams, 36, gave birth to her first child in September.

The pair could also be joined by Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, says Tiley.

"All the top players will be back in Melbourne," he said.

Former world number one Djokovic has been sidelined since suffering an elbow injury at Wimbledon, while Wawrinka and Nishikori have been out since the summer with respective knee and wrist problems.

"I can tell you that in talking to Andy, he has been training and he is preparing for having a great year in 2018," Tiley said.

"How much would this year have hurt him, to watch over the entire year Roger [Federer] and Rafa [Nadal] share four Grand Slam titles - he would not have liked that.

"As competitive as Andy is, we know he's back and he'll want to improve his current ranking of number three in the world and getting back to number one."

The men's and women's singles winners will each collect four million Australian dollars (£2.4m) in 2018, up from A$3.7m in 2017, while the entire prize money pool has increased by 10% to A$55m (£32.4m).

•Photo shows Serena Williams.

Source Daily Sports

Posted October 11, 2017

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