In fairness to Katie, she is hard at pre-season training now, and has posted photos etc of her and Gabi in the gym. Hopefully the break has done her good and she can kick off in the new season.

Monica Puig has withdrawn from the MD, meaning Kaia Kanepi is now in.

Julia Carrot wrote:

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I'm hoping to catch the first couple of days at the Australian open myself this year. Anyone been and have any tips? Should I buy day tickets now - what chance of show court tickets on the day if there are ones I really want to attend?

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Hi Julia - I've been to Australian Open. About 4 years ago. Of the 3 I've been to (Aus, French, Wim) I have to say the Aus Open is by far the best in terms of facilities and organisation. Lots of fun stuff happening around the grounds. Loads of space. Live music etc. I went in first few days. I had ground passes for both days. It gives you access to all courts excluding Rod Laver and Margaret Court. I got to see some good matches on Hisense (Now Melbourne Arena) I have a feeling the scheduling is relatively Brit friendly because they purposefully scheduled 3 brits on one of the outside courts which had plenty of seating. Tickets were super easy to buy online and then collect at ticket booth by entrance. Not sure about likelihood of showcourt tickets being available on the day. You can walk from Federation Square in the city to the site in about 15 mins along the river.

There is also a free tram service that runs every half hour and gets you fairly close to the arena (it is like London's circle line train and runs in both directions) - it is a fair way south east of the main bit of Melbourne; if your accommodation is based in the centre of Melbourne, you could be looking at an hour's walk otherwise.

Hi Julia, I live in Melbourne, originally from NI. The Australian Open is a great day out, a ground pass can be bought on the day online from Ticketek, get the tickets sent to your phone so you can scan in without having to queue to collect a physical copy. You get access to the Melbourne arena with a ground pass, which normally has a lot of the top Aussies playing, If there's a match you are interested in seeing, I'd recommend going into the arena half way through the final set of the previous match to get a good seat, otherwise the queue will be crazy. Andy Murray played on it in Jan, and the atmosphere was amazing. The week before there are free practice sessions, normally not advertised widely but posted on Facebook. There was one in Jan with Andy against Novak. Qualifying is also free. They've invested a lot in turning it into an all round event, there's a kids zone with loads of activities and a music section where they have different headliners each day throughout the tournament. You should be able to pick up show court tickets as well on the day. It gets super hot and there's little shade on the outside courts, so bring a hat and plenty of water. A lot of the players also stay in serviced apartments in South Yarra beside the train station so it's good fun player spotting! 

It looks like there are 7 players from 100-200 range that have ruled themselves out of quals, and 3 have used a PR to get into qualifying, so the cut off, without considering the MDWCs, is currently Ana Bondar at 226. There's 8 MDWCs as usual, and 3 of them are confirmed (French reciprocal Parmentier, Asia/Pacific WC playoff Han, Aussie WC playoff Ar Rodionova), so those 3 being removed would see a welcome return for young Lopatetska, who is using a PR of 228.

There's still 4 more WCs TBA (excluding CoCo V who has the US one and isn't in the quals list, so wouldn't need to be removed), one of these 4 will likely go to Sharapova (if she is fit) who also isn't in the q list (so she may well have already been promised one, or if not, delaying her comeback until March so she qualifies for her own PR). The final 3 will likely go to the likes of Cabrera, Hon and Sharma - the latter 2 didn't play the recent Aussie playoff so have probably already been given the nod, Cabrera didn't actually play either, but she was in the initial draw before withdrawing late. All 3 of those Aussies are in the q entry list, so if we remove those 6 (all of them bar CoCo V and Sharapova), the 226 would go down to Hayley Baptiste at 231 as last in.

Katie S would then be the 15th alt at 249 (the players ranked 237, 241, and 242 are not in the list), and while there'll no doubt be withdrawals, possibly 1 or 2 in the main draw as well, which would have a ripple effect into quals, I doubt there'll be the 15 needed to see her sneak in this year with Qs starting in 2 weeks.