Jack Draper is going to be very dangerous, the only way is up for Emma Raducanu… while Andy Murray could make an emotional Wimbledon farewell in 2024

The commercial activities of Emma Raducanu attract much comment, but there could be few criticisms about her turning up earlier this month to support a charity which helped her when she was a little-known junior.

Without fanfare, Raducanu joined Jack Draper at Wimbledon to add sparkle at a black tie fundraiser for Tennis First, who offer financial assistance to those on the pathway to the professional game.

As the new season dawns with events scattered around Australasia, these two should be looking ahead with optimism — providing they can avoid injury mishaps which afflicted them in 2023.

Raducanu is the lesser known quantity after a month of preparation which underlined the fact she does things her own way. For example, she darted off to Hong Kong for a sponsor appearance and posted pictures of a late-night training session with two local coaches who were unknown to the Lawn Tennis Association staff who were helping her at the National Tennis Centre. There were also a few eyebrows raised when she did a Porsche photo shoot at the same NTC.

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On the positive side, her work with Nick Cavaday before Christmas looks an encouraging move, were the arrangement to be cemented. The 37-year-old from Kent is a familiar face from Raducanu’s days developing at the Bromley tennis academy and he enjoys a good reputation as a quietly thorough coach with a decent range of experience in the professional game.

Raducanu has headed for Auckland and the ASB Classic, where it all started to go wrong for her last year after turning an ankle while being forced to play indoors by rain. One new reality is that, according to tournament sources, she is not being paid an appearance fee this time around.

That is a consequence of her ranking dropping down to the low 200s, having not struck a ball in anger since mid-April.

A fair projection of what might happen, assuming she can stay fit, is that she struggles in the early stages of her comeback before hopefully getting back into her stride. She remains a very unusual athletic talent, is still young and from mid-March has no points to defend, so the only way will be up.

As Draper, who has known her a long time, recently said: ‘I know that at some point next year, or the year after that, she’s going to be back to being in those finals and big positions because she’s got everything it takes. It’s just a matter of when.’

The progress of Draper himself will be fascinating to watch this season. While it was easy to dismiss the Ultimate Tennis Showdown in London before Christmas as a mere exhibition, his winning performance there displayed not just how good he is but how his base fitness appears to have improved.

You can be sure that the strong field assembled there will have taken note, with a view to when they might come up against him this season.

A key task for Draper at the Grand Slams will be to get past opponents he should beat without being dragged into unnecessarily long matches. If he does that, then he is going to be very dangerous — even to the best of players on the ATP Tour.

While he and Raducanu offer promise for the future, then Andy Murray — who took himself off to Dubai to train this month — will be seeking to conjure up glories from the past as he starts out on what could be the final season of his career.

There have been predictions that he might make an emotional exit at Wimbledon, and that could happen. There are, however, those close to him who also offer up the prospect that if he is getting some decent results, he will see no reason not to carry on squeezing every last drop from his career.

Never underestimate the 36-year-old Scot’s sheer, unadulterated love for tennis and competing. There were also times this year when the odd point here and there could have made it turn out differently, such as against Stefanos Tsitsipas at Wimbledon, where he was edged out in five sets. He is also someone prone to changing his mind, so it should not be taken as read that what would be his 16th Wimbledon — he has missed three through injury — will be his last.

Nor might that be the case for Rafael Nadal, another who is setting out on what he originally announced would be a valedictory tour. Both he and Murray will be kicking off at the ATP event in Brisbane.

Cam Norrie, Dan Evans and Katie Boulter will be representing Great Britain at the United Cup team event, which this year is happening in just two cities, Perth and Sydney.

Tennis had a problem in 2023 with too many of its most interesting names — Nadal, Naomi Osaka, Raducanu and Nick Kyrgios among them — being seen either barely or not at all. It would be a good thing for everyone if all were present and correct far more often in 2024, although in the case of Kyrgios seeing will be believing.

It was also a feature of this season that Novak Djokovic only played 12 ranking tournaments, yet despite that he will start this year as world No 1 by some distance.

For Djokovic, who is also playing in the United Cup, the Australian Open usually provides the perfect way to set himself up for the year. He will be going for his 11th title at the place he performs best, where the court surface is ideal and he gets favourable scheduling treatment by repeatedly getting put on the first match of the evening session.

If he wins there, and he probably will, then expect him still to be the dominant player, even when turning 37 in May.

The fact is that while Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner might be getting closer, they are still yet to prove they can beat him consistently over five sets, even taking into account the Spaniard’s extraordinary afternoon at Wimbledon this summer. 

Should someone pull off an upset in Melbourne, then the narrative could be very different.

Ultimately the women’s game is likely to be less predictable, as is now usual, and Iga Swiatek is the player to beat — everywhere but Wimbledon.

Taken in the round, 2023 was not a great year for tennis, a sport which is too resistant to change and presently undergoing transition while a golden generation departs.

Yet it always regenerates, and it will be a surprise if this globetrotting sporting soap opera — largely switching to Sky in the UK this year — is not considerably more intriguing over the next 12 months.