Australian Open 2020: Top 5 favorites and prediction for men’s singles

4. Roger Federer

Roger Federer may be on a two-year stretch without winning a Grand Slam, but he has still won two of the last three Australian Open tournaments and a stunning six titles overall.

The Swiss star comes into the tournament as fourth favorite due to the impressive progress from the next man on this list.

But while Federer does not produce brilliance as regularly as he used to these days, we may have reached the point where his age (38) and drop in consistency has been given too much weight.

Only Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are regularly beating his key match metrics and Federer remains a major contender.

Federer’s cause was not helped by a difficult draw that could see him face Djokovic in the semifinals if he makes it that far.

But the veteran insists he comes in fresh having not played a competitive match since his ATP Finals. He will hope any rustiness does not make him vulnerable in the first week.

3. Daniil Medvedev

That Daniil Medvedev is being rated ahead of Federer is a sign of the Russian’s remarkable progress, particularly on hard courts, in 2019.

As well as pushing Nadal to five sets as part of an intense run to the US Open final, Medvedev made nine ATP Tour finals last year and earned his first two Masters 1000 titles.

He starts against Frances Tiafoe and got plenty of match action under his belt at the ATP Cup, where Djokovic was the only player to beat him, and even that took a close deciding set.