Punters heading to the Adelaide International on Tuesday can look forward to 25 degrees and blue skies, the mercury rising to 33 by the time Saturday’s finals come about.
On court, the play looks like hotting up significantly too and in an out-of-the-blue scenario, it is an 18-year-old ranked world No.203 who will have the home crowd backing her every hit.
Wildcard Taylah Preston from Perth is the sole Australian woman left in the draw following the withdrawal of Ajla Tomljanovic.
To say Preston’s rise has been meteoric would be not so much as understatement as an outright whopper. A year ago this week, recovering from a back injury, she sat at No.653 in the world rankings before sliding to No.836 in early April.
She played one qualifying round of a WTA 500 tournament (Berlin in June) last year but managed just three games against China’s Xinyu Wang. Things didn’t look great.
And then came the turnaround, a semifinal in an ITF $25,000 event in Perth followed by a win there the following week in another $25,000 offering.
She won again, in Cairns, then saw off the top-seeded Aussie Kim Birrell in Playford. It got better, a five-match winning streak saw her celebrate 2023 in style as she clinched the ITF $60,000 Brisbane tournament in November.
And then the coup de grace, Preston granted a thoroughly deserved main-draw singles wildcard for Australian Open 2024.
Adelaide tournament director Alicia Molik is in no doubt the teenager can cause waves and possibly sooner rather than later.
“Taylah was an Orange Girl for the Billie Jean King Cup team when I was captain,” she said.
“In the practice hits she would always chase the balls that were going out. To me that’s a great sign of a player.
“She wants to get ahead, to do things and was like a sponge. She is professional with great attention to detail.”
Molik has been aware of Preston, a fellow Perth resident, for some time.
“She came out of the juniors and has a real confidence about her when she walks on court. She wants to get better and has a hunger and an urgency.”
And there is the consummate carrot should Preston need it.
We always ask when is the next Ash Barty coming along, said Molik. And along with Emerson Jones Olivia Gadecki, Talia Gibson among others, Preston is already very much part of the next cohort looking to upset the more established rank and file.
Whether that happens on Tuesday is anyone’s guess, Preston’s first round is, on paper, a challenging prospect.
Caroline Garcia, the 30-year-old tour veteran with 11 singles and five doubles titles and winner of the year-end WTA Finals in 2022 stands in her way. Like Preston, she’s displayed recent good form, claiming three singles wins in the United Cup for France this year already.
It would be an enormous win for Preston, who spoke well before a corporate crowd at The Drive on Sunday evening. It is second match on Show Court 1 on Tuesday, with 12.30 to 1pm a rough starting time.
> VIEW: Adelaide International 2024 women’s draw
Elsewhere, the reigning No.3 seed Marketa Vondrousova is a must-see as she takes on Belarusian qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich. A “crafty left who plays an exciting game.” said Molik of Vondrousova.
Qualifier Sasnovich, ranked world No.83 is no slouch and thinks big. She says her dream is to win Wimbledon, which of course her Czech opponent managed last July as an unseeded and largely unknown outsider.
There is little to match the kudos of a Wimbledon singles crown and the colourful and engaging Vondrousova is a genuine coup for the tournament.
And she has, as befits her status, landed a plum time slot, the 6.30pm match on Centre Court.
> VIEW: Adelaide International order of play
To the men and Australia’s Rinky Hijikata takes on the British veteran Dan Evans in what may well be the men’s match of the day following the Vondrousova contest on Centre Court.
Evans is ranked 30 places higher than his opponent at world No.40 but home advantage may well prove telling. They have not met before and the 22-year-old Hijikata who aged 22, is 11 years younger than Evans and will be buoyed by his performances in Brisbane last week, where he won two matches before falling to the eventual winner Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight.
It is also an opportunity to watch the 22-year-old Sydneysider who created headlines a year ago when he won the Australian Open men’s doubles title with pal Jason Kubler, the first time the men had teamed up. The win has given him an identity and sent of himself says Molik.
Evans though is dangerous and one of the characters of the game and, for what it’s worth, a long standing pal of Nick Kyrgios.
Expect a cracker.
Earlier Australia’s Chris O’Connell starts the day’s play on Centre court against 2022 Adelaide singles finalist Arthur Rinderknech and is followed by Jordan Thompson – the conqueror of Rafael Nadal last Friday – who faces qualifier Facundo Diaz Acosta from Argentina.