Tennis News: Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Marta Kostyuk

While tennis players likely feel as if they don't have much time off, for tennis fans the six weeks or so between one season to the next seems indefinite. We want to see our favorite players such as Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, Aryna Sabalenka, and others play, right? Of course, players are not machines and they need their rest.

Luckily for fans, the 2024 tennis season gets fully underway in a bit over a week. The United Cup in Perth, Australia, is only a week away, too. Real tennis is almost back!

Plus, the first Grand Slam of 2024 is just three weeks away. The Australian Open begins on Sunday, January 14, and runs through January 28. The tournament has now expanded to 15 days. So let's start with some more scheduling news.

Carlos Alcaraz releases first three months of his 2024 schedule

First off, Carlos Alcaraz isn't playing any warm-up tournaments leading up to the Australian Open. He is playing a couple of exhibition matches, including one against Jannik Sinner and one against Novak Djokovic. But his first full event in 2024 will be at the Aussie Open.

After that, Alcaraz will take a short break before playing in the Argentina Open that begins on February 13. Next he will play the Rio (Brazil) Open which is set to start on February 20. In March, the Spaniard will play in both the Masters 1000 events, Indian Wells (which starts March 8) followed by the Miami Masters (which gets underway in full on March 20).

Novak Djokovic's Foundation's yearly fundraiser is underway

Novak Djokovic established his foundation in 2007 when he was 20 years old. Think about that for a second. Even before Djokovic became the great player we know today, he was already thinking ahead and trying to do good. The foundation's mission is to help Serbian children have access to early childhood education.

This year, the Novak Djokovic Foundation's goal is to raise funds to help rebuild an elementary school in Rvati, Serbia. Whatever is contributed will be matched by Novak and his wife, Jelena. You can donate yourself by going to the link about for the foundation.

Why Marta Kotsyuk did not play Mirra Andreeva

This past weekend, Russian player Mirra Andreeva made the final at the exhibition even in France and was set to play Ukrainian player Marta Kotsyuk. But Kotsyuk decided to pull out of playing in the final which led event organizers to scramble around for someone to play. That turned out to be ATP player Yanis Ghazouani Durand, to whom Andreeva lost in straight sets.

The immediate thought was that Kotsyuk chose not to play the final simply because Russia and Ukraine are at war. But Kotsyuk was actually going to play until some news networks in her country began running reports of the match which caused a massive negative reaction with some threats to the security of Kotsyuk herself. Only then did she decide not to play.

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