The first tennis Grand Slam of the year is upon is as Melbourne Park plays host to the Australian Open 2024.

Here’s what you need to know about the tournament:

What are the key dates?

The Australian Open begins on Sunday, January 14 and runs through to the men’s singles final on Sunday, January 28.

The women’s singles final will be staged the day before.

The event’s 15-day duration is a first, given the tournament would usually begin on a Monday, but an extra day has been added in the hope of avoiding late-night finishes.

Players qualify for the main draw by being ranked in the top 104, or by winning three qualifying matches (in qualifiers from January 8 to 11), or by wildcard.

How much is the prize money?

The total prize money for the tournament has increased by 13 percent this year to stand at 86.5 million Australian dollars ($57.83m).

The singles champions will win 3.15 million Australian dollars ($2.11m) each.

Who are the favourites?

Both reigning champions will line up in Melbourne to defend their crowns, with Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defending his men’s singles title and Belarus’s Aryna Sabalenka competing to retain the women’s trophy.

Djokovic, 36, has won the Australian Open on 10 occasions and is the top seed. Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev and Italy’s Jannik Sinner are ranked two, three and four.

Alcaraz heads to Melbourne Park without any competitive matches under his belt this season.

Sabalenk lost the women’s number one ranking to Poland’s Iga Swiatek last year.

America’s Coco Gauff is seeded third behind the pair after winning the US Open in September. Elena Rybakina, who won Wimbledon in 2022, is ranked fourth.

The biggest name to miss out is Spain’s Rafael Nadal as he continues his rehabilitation from a hip injury but Britain’s Emma Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open, returns from eight months out following surgery on both her wrist and ankle. Japan’s Naomi Osaka also returns after giving birth last July, hoping to add to her four major titles.