Delayed due to the need for hotel quarantine and sufficient warm-up events, the tournament starts in February for the first time in over 100 years as the Australian contingent aim to be the first home-country champion since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1977.

There's a high chance that if someone is to break the Australian drought, it will be world number one Ash Barty.

Despite not stepping foot on a WTA court since February 2020, Barty powered her way to victory in the Yarra Valley Classic, one of several Australian Open warm-up events provided by the Melbourne Summer Series.

She defeated fellow AO hope Garbine Murguruza in the final after a semi-final walkover from Serena Williams allowed a strong rest for the Australian.

Spending the best part of 2020 rejuvenating and avoiding the 14-day quarantine period thanks to being Australian, this could be Barty's best chance at Melbourne glory after a semi-final appearance last year.

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The woman that defeated Barty last year en route to her maiden Grand Slam victory, Sofia Kenin, headlines a strong group of Americans who are looking to restrict Barty's chances.

Kenin, who was selected as a "smoky" for the title in this preview last season, shocked the globe by winning her maiden Grand Slam and backed it up by reaching the final of the French Open in September.

She was comfortably defeated by Murguruza at the Yarra Valley Classic but if Kenin doesn't take it out, countrywoman Williams always looms as a dangerous threat.

Serena and Japanese superstar Naomi Osaka are both on the bottom side of the draw which features fellow dangerous players in Bianca Andreescu (in her first Grand Slam since winning the 2019 US Open), Petra Kvitova, Iga Swiatek, Angelique Kerber and Murguruza.

Barty's half features the likes of Elina Svitolina, Victoria Azarenka, Karolina Pliskova and Kenin.

Ash certainly won't be the only Australian to grace the courts over the next two weeks, with nine other compatriots set to take part.

She may face Daria Gavrilova in round two, with the former Russian one of several Australians to receive a wildcard as Alja Tomljanovic joined Barty as a directly accepted player thanks to her ranking.

2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur and Destanee Aiava face off in the first round while Maddison Inglis, Arina Rodionova, Astra Sharma, Kim Birrell and Lizette Cabrera all aim to get through the first round.

As is often the case with the Australian Open, it is incredibly hard to go past Novak Djokovic.

The polarising Serb became an eight-time champion at Melbourne Park last year and has won the past two installments of the tournament, making him a surefire favourite every year.

While I'm not the biggest Djokovic fan, you can't doubt his accomplishments and despite a nice, little temper tantrum at the ATP Cup, I'm not sure anyone will get past him.

Last year's finalist Dominic Thiem, who won his first Grand Slam at the US Open, sits on the same side of the draw as Djokovic, as does Germany's Alexander Zverev, who lost to Djokovic at the ATP Cup in the tournament lead-up.

The other side of the draw is headlined by French Open legend and 2009 Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal.

The Spaniard comes into the open under an injury cloud, hampered by a back injury which meant he didn't step foot on the court for Spain's ATP Cup defence as he looks for a record 21^st Grand Slam.

Nadal's side arguably features more players who are able to cause a stir with the likes of in-form Russian ATP Cup-winning duo Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev and Greek up-and-comer Stefanos Tsitsipas, who caused one of the Australian Open's biggest upsets in recent memory back in 2019.

Then 20 years of age, Tsitsipas announced himself to the tennis world by defeating reigning champion Roger Federer, who misses this year's installment due to a lingering knee injury, en route to the semi-finals - his best Grand Slam result.

The draw is a field scattered full of Aussies with top-ranked star Alex De Minaur the sole seeded competitor.

He faces American Tennys Sandgren in a dangerous first-round match-up before a potential fourth-round encounter with Nadal awaits.

Fellow top-100 ranked males John Millman, Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson do battle with Corentin Moutet, Federico Ferreira Silva and Casper Ruud respectively.

Awarded wildcards were Marc Polmans, Alex Bolt, Li Tu, Christopher O'Connell, Alexei Popyrin, Aleksandar Vukic and Thanasi Kokkinakis while James Duckworth was directly accepted and Bernard Tomic, who comes in under an injury cloud, qualified.