The Australian Open 2022 guide: Where to watch the tournament? Which big tennis stars are playing at Melbourne Park?

The Australian Open has been making global headlines even before the players have stepped onto the court. 

Players have been detained by Australian Border Force, Novak Djokovic's visa has been cancelled for a second time, and some of the sport's biggest names have failed to make the trip due to injury.

COVID-19 restrictions limited crowd numbers at last year's tournament, and have again caused organisers to reduce capacity due to a surge in Omicron cases.  

So, here's your guide to what is happening on the court at Melbourne Park.

The Australian Open will be contested from January 17 to 30.

The women's singles final will be played on January 29, with the men's singles decider the following evening on January 30.

The wheelchair tennis events will be played from January 23 to 27.

You can watch the Australian Open on free-to-air TV on Channel Nine and on-demand on their 9Now website and app. 

Nine will be offering live televised, and on-demand streaming coverage of the Australian Open live across its various platforms.

The ABC will be blogging the tournament, and will also be providing match reports, news stories, and analysis.

ABC Sport will provide live updates on radio across the weekendas part of the Summer Grandstand program. 

Naomi Osaka will be defending her Australian Open title at Melbourne Park after she endured a tumultuous 2021.

Osaka pulled put of the French Openbefore her second-round match after a battle with officials over her refusal to honour media commitments due to what she said were mental health issues, and as a result of those she did not play Wimbledon.

Her performances at her home Tokyo Olympics and the US Open were sub-par for her.

But at an Australian Open warm-up event in Melbourne the Japanese former world