Serena up Down Under

Can Serena Williams win a calendar-year Grand Slam? Where’s Rafael Nadal, and when will he be back? As the 2013 tennis season begins in earnest today (Monday in Melbourne) at the Australian Open, we know that Nadal is not back. He has withdrawn from the first major of the year, saying his knee tendinitis has now been trumped by a stomach virus. Williams, though, seems in the best shape of her career and is still on the high of winning Wimbledon, the Olympics and the U.S. Open. She is not the defending champion in Melbourne. That honor belongs to top-seeded Victoria Azarenka, but it’s hard for anybody to pick against Williams. On the men’s side, two-time defending champion Novak Djokovic is the favorite. – Los Angeles Times