With the 2018 Australian Open set to kick off Monday in Melbourne (Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET), SI's tennis experts and writers Jon Wertheim, Richard Deitsch, Stanley Kay and Jamie Lisanti discuss this year’s top storylines and predict the winners.
What player or qualifier do you see being a dark horse or having a big breakthrough this year?
Jon Wertheim: My guess? There will be mini-breakthroughs and continued progress. Denis Shapovalov, Sascha Zverev (who perhaps gets Djokovic in the round of 16), Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex De Minaur. On the women’s side, Ash Barty is climbing the charts.