Australian Open 2012 live stream

Australian Open 2012 will represent the seventh time Greg Jones has competed at Melbourne Park but his first in the main draw.

Playing in the junior draw in 2006 and 2007 and in the qualifying event from 2007 to 2011, the Sydneysider’s most recent outing saw him come within just one match of qualifying for the main draw for the very first time in his career. 

Although he lost his final-round match to Slovenian Blaz Kavcic, the subsequent confidence he gained from this run – bolstered by a trip to the final round of qualifying at the US Open during a successful 2011 season – means if he finds himself in the same position at Australian Open 2012, he’s optimistic about his chances of going one better.

“I love Melbourne, I love playing in Australia and having a lot of family and friends to support you makes it a bit more special, because my parents don’t see me play the rest of the year. This is the one time of the year they get to watch me," he says, following a practice session with fellow Aussies Chris Guccione and Marinko Matosevic.

“I’m excited. I think I had an improved year in 2011, got a lot of experiences, started playing a lot more ATP tour qualifying, qualified for my first ever tour events.

“I’m looking forward to having a couple more weeks to get ready [before the Australian Open] and hopefully use January to really catapult myself next year.”

Jones’s 2011 highlights include trimming his ranking from world No.299 in May to his current mark of No.196, qualifying for ATP events in Los Angeles and Bangkok, and deep runs at Challenger events in Dallas, Johannesburg, South Korea and Uzbekistan. But coming into the Australian Open Wildcard Play-off in early December as the top seed, he suffered an upset loss to James Duckworth.

“I was hugely disappointed. I think anything short of a win [at the event] was going to be a waste of time,” he reflects.

“It was just difficult – I played the whole year and that was by far the hardest conditions I’ve played in ... the first [match] was OK, but the next two matches were so windy, it was very difficult to play any form of tennis.”

Jones says it is unwise to gauge his form based on that performance, and he’s looking to shrugging off that disappointment as he prepares for the Australian summer of tennis.

The 2007 qualifying event forms one of Jones’s most memorable Australian Open moments. As a 17-year-old, he took on Italian Simone Bolelli – ranked roughly 1500 places above him – and acquitted himself excellently in his first appearance at senior level at Melbourne Park.

Serving for the match leading 10-9 in the third set, Jones moved ahead 30-0 before his more experienced opponent clubbed some valuable winners to run away with a 6-4 3-6 13-11 win.

Another significant memory was a similarly tight loss in the first round of the 2009 men’s doubles event, partnering Peter Luzcak and taking on the seeded duo of Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram. 

“We were on Show Court 3 playing a night match, and it was a great atmosphere as a couple of Aussies with the crowd getting into it ... we were up 6-3 in the third-set tiebreak and three match points, and we lost 10-8,” he says, laughing. 

“[They’re] not great memories in terms of results, but the experience and atmosphere were incredible.”

That atmosphere is what Jones believes sets the Australian Open apart from the other majors, and one of the many reasons it is his favourite event on the tennis calendar.

“It’s awesome. It’s our slam. You’ve got the crowd,” he says.

“Just generally in the Australian media, January is tennis, especially compared to the other slams with the time changes at Wimbledon and the French Open. They’re on in the middle of the night, and it’s not quite the same exposure or buzz.

“For us as Australians, it’s by far the biggest time of the year to do well ... There’s such a buzz around Melbourne Park and around the whole city really, it’s definitely something different.”

Jones faces a tough opening round on Monday against 13th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov on Margaret Court Arena.