A couple days into the Australian Open with the first round finishing up, PR’s varsity tennis team has predicted who will win! The manager and team captain gave insightful predictions, but the team votes came to a tie between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
Novak Djokovic, a 36 year old from Serbia, and Carlos Alcaraz, a 20 year old from Spain, both got 28.6% of the PR team’s vote. A total of 12 players, along with the team manager and next season’s team coach participated in the survey.
The team’s manager, Cole Palese, is rooting for Holger Rune, who he says is “a young guy with tons of talent and potential.” At 20 years old from Denmark, Rune is going into the tournament currently ranked number 8 in the world.
When asked if he thinks Rune has the potential to beat tennis stars like Novak Djokovic, and others who had an amazing year in 2023, Cole said, “I absolutely think he does. He’s proven to be able to.”
Rune has only four titles and is approaching his fourth year on the professional tour but the two have met five times before. Currently Djokovic leads 3-2 and they could meet in the final round in Melbourne. Cole also told us that he thinks Rune can win this “if he gets his mind right.”
Team captain Aleena Ciezak, on the other hand, thinks Frances Tiafoe has a shot. Ranked at 17 in the world right now, Aleena’s vote goes to him for what she says is “the psychological aspect” of the game.
“Tennis is a very mental game and a lot of people struggle to keep their minds in check” Aleena said early on when describing Tiafoe. This is similar to how Cole described tennis by his comment about Rune needing to “[get] his mind right.” Aleena went on to say “if you can get [the mental aspect] down, you can do anything.
The two may disagree on a winner, but agree that at a professional, or even school level, your mentality is what matters.
Aleena also noted Tiafoe is “always so positive,” and if he can manage to keep this ability throughout the tournament, he might have a chance at his first Grand Slam Title.
Mrs. Erin Palese agreed with Aleena and Cole on picking someone that has the right mindset, but she is watching Tommy Paul this year. Mrs. Palese voted for Paul because of his incredible mental growth.
Mrs. Palese described the start of Paul’s career as rocky because “he made a lot of bad decisions” but acknowledged he “regained focus.” Maybe the right mindset is all you need to win?
Cole and Aleena weren’t the only seniors with educated predictions though. Ava Cook went a little bit of a different route, landing on Novak Djokovic to win this year’s Australian Open.
Ava said she picked Djokovic because “he is constantly evolving and adding more and more variety to what he does.” Djokovic has been in the game for over 20 years now and with 24 Grand Slam titles, the most in history, he is fighting for more this year.
Djokovic has won the Australian Open 10 times before and Ava says Djokovic’s “opponents will feel like they have the upper hand, only for him to come up with a new strategy.” She is also not worried whatsoever about his age being a huge factor. Ava told us “he’s only 36 and he trains hard.”
The 14 votes resulted in two ties. Six players on the tour–Holger Rune [8], Taylor Fritz [12], Aleksandar Kovacevic [103], Daniil Medvedev [3], Tommy Paul [14], and Frances Tiafoe [17]– received 7.1% of the vote each, while Djokovic [1] and Alcaraz [2] at 28.6% made up the majority.
Alcaraz has won two Grand Slam Titles including Wimbledon in 2023 and the US Open in 2022. He won the US Open at only 19 years old and his future is looking up with his biggest competition being Djokovic.
The team is excited to watch these matches play out and potentially see their pick take home the trophy. The Australian Open dates are from Sunday, January 14 to the final round, which is scheduled to be on Sunday, January 28. So the question remains: will the PR team’s predictions come true?
