As the first slam of 2018 fast approaches, the top male and female players sat down before the media to discuss the fortnight ahead. Billie Jean King’s explosive press conference (http://www. bbc.com/sport/tennis/42 659 896) on Friday, which was billed by Tennis Australia as a celebration of her career but ended with her suggesting that the name of the Margaret Court Arena should be renamed, meant that much of Saturday’s discourse was dominated by the players tirelessly attempting to avoid directly addressing the subject. As usual, the players had much more to say about their own affairs.

Here’s what they said:

Novak Djokovic is back. After a false start in Abu Dhabi, the 12-time slam champion returned from his six-month elbow injury layoff on Wednesday at the Kooyong exhibition in Melbourne. Since his very first service game, the discussion has rested firmly on his new service motion, a motion the Serb has significantly abbreviated in order to alleviate stress on his troublesome elbow. Djokovic’s quote of the day was not one of his famously long, politician-esque answers, but rather what he left unsaid when asked about whether he had taken injections or other treatment to prepare himself for Australia.

“I'm not going to get into the details. There was a lot of things that were on the table, that we've done, things that we haven't done. To take you through the whole process, we need quite a bit of time. I'm here. I'm going to play. Hopefully, everything goes well.”

After six months, Djokovic is still working through his elbow injury. We will see how things go.

Stan Wawrinka's comeback from knee surgery and a 6-month layoff appeared to be in jeopardy after a late withdrawal from Wednesday's Tie Break Tens event, but the Swiss assured that he would be present when the tournament begins on Monday. However, it seems that he will return in conditions even less than ideal than Djokovic’s, with pain still punctuating some movements and his level still a distance from anything resembling his top level. But the three-time slam champion is just happy to be back.

“I'm feeling better. I'm slowly getting there. First thing was last-minute choice to come here for a week to practice without knowing if I would be able to play or not. But I think was the right choice after few months being home, practicing a lot to get my knee a little bit better. I think I'm happy with the week I had. It was important to get push, to practice with the top guys, to practice a lot more than normally because it's the first week I had the chance to play points and practice at a high level. I know I'm not at the level I want to be yet because it's a long process to get there. But I'm happy with the way the knee is handling.”

Simona Halep arrives in Melbourne with a #1 next to her name and a Shenzhen title in the first week of her season. The only thing stopping her shine is the fact that she has been forced to live life like a commoner, buying her own unbranded clothing as she awaits a new clothing contract after the ending of her contract with Adidas.

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US Open champion Sloane Stephens will start her Australian Open campaign on a seven-match losing streak, without a single victory since her triumph in New York and after an off-season significantly affected by a knee injury. None of those woes mean a thing in the face of discounts and triumph in her sibling rivalry.

“Well, everyone in my family has a degree,” she said. “My mom has her doctorate. I was, like, I cannot be the only person that doesn't have a degree. My brother is in college, goes to San Diego State. I have to graduate before him, because I'm better than him (smiling). I have to prove to him that I'm smarter in everything. Yeah, and the WTA does this program with IUE [Indiana University East]. It was 75% off. Anybody who knows me knows that I love a good discount. I was like, I might as well go ahead and do it before they snatch it back. I decided to do it.”

Despite withdrawing from Brisbane with his ongoing knee injury, Rafael Nadal has looked strong in his recent pre-tournament exhibitions. The Australian Open will mark Nadal’s first official tournament without Uncle Toni as his official coach, a fact that appears less resonant to Nadal than anyone else in Australia.

“He participate as much as he wants to participate. He's my uncle. He's more than anything else. That's it. Everything that he wants to do with me, I am happy with, no? Is not about my decision. He has enough confidence with me, or I have enough confidence with him, to talk about anything I have to talk. From your perspective is different than my perspective. Is difficult to explain. But is part of my family. Is not only coach that he's coming or not coming. I call him like a family. He love me. I love him. Is not about, you know, professional relationship. Is a familial relationship. In terms of professional things, I spoke to him few days ago, speaking about how the life going, how the tennis going. If I have something to ask, I ask to him. If he have something to tell me, he call me and tell me. No, no, is not difficult situation. Is very easy situation.”

Even after a career year in 2017 that ended with him collecting a Masters 1000 title, the World Tour Finals and finishing the year ranked #3, Grigor Dimitrov’s mind still wanders back to his semi-final heartbreaker against Nadal last year.

“Right after I finished the match, I watched it the following day. Yeah, almost the whole thing. I mean, I was so inadequate, I was just out. I was thinking, How did I lose that match almost? I saw on the breakpoints, for example, I couldn't have done anything else. I played the right shot, the right thing. But he came through with his game. That was it. I've learned so much from that match. There's so many, like, bittersweet memories from it, I kind of set up a great year for me. I think I really, really learned a lot from it. After I came back to Europe, played good indoors, had kind of a good start of the year. Yeah, I mean, hopefully, I have more of those matches.”

As he continues to chase his first slam quarterfinal, Sascha Zverev remains both assured of his credentials across best of five sets and still disgusted by his loss to Borna Coric at last year’s US Open.

“For me, physically when I go five sets, I feel fine. As I said, I mean, I lost to Nadal and Milos Raonic on a grass court and hard court here, where they both went to the finals, so… It's not a big thing to worry about for me. As I said, I had one bad match at a Grand Slam last year, at the US Open. Besides from that, I don't think it was that big of a deal.”

For 11 months, female players have been asked about the absence of Serena Williams. At the turn of 2018, Johanna Konta finally had enough.

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After capturing his first title on home soil last week in Brisbane, Nick Kyrgios looks as relaxed as he has ever seemed before a major since his breakthrough. The Canberran particularly spoke about his increased maturity, something the rise of young Australian Alex De Minaur led him to reflect on.

“I think last year there were periods where I was really good and really bad. But at the end of the day I just need to know it's a long year. I can't expend too much energy, you know, on other things. I want to kind of ride the highs, not as high as I usually do. If I lose a match, at the end of the day it's a tennis match. I kind of want to keep it even-keeled throughout the whole year rather than being such a rollercoaster ride. I guess right now that's what I'm doing. Brisbane was a great week, but I had to prepare for the Australian Open, and I am prepared.”

(Photo Source: Scott Barbour/Getty Images AsiaPac)