What to watch this weekend in Olympic sports

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The next few months are going to be very busy for Canada's winter Olympic athletes as they gear up for the 2026 Games in Italy, which are just over a year away. World championships in curling, figure skating, speed skating, skiing, sliding and women's hockey will help reveal the top medal contenders in those sports, while the 4 Nations Face-Off serves as an appetizer for NHL players' return to the Olympics.

For now, though, we're looking at a relatively quiet weekend in the Olympic sports realm. But there are a few interesting things on tap involving Canadian Olympians, so let's go through some of those.

Tennis: Australian Open kicks off the new year

There's almost no off-season in tennis, but the Australian Open is the spiritual start of a brand-new year. The first major tournament of 2025 finds 10-time men's champion Novak Djokovic trying to reclaim the Aussie title from world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who beat him in the semifinals last year en route to the Italian's first Grand Slam trophy. Djokovic finished the year without a major championship for the first time since 2017 (though he did win his elusive Olympic gold), so the 37-year-old Serb still needs one more to become the first player in history with 25 Grand Slam singles titles.

Five Canadians are competing in the singles events in Melbourne, which get started Saturday night in our time zones. Felix Auger-Aliassime, seeded 29th in the men's draw, reached the final of a warmup tournament in Adelaide today by defeating world No. 12 Tommy Paul of the U.S. Felix will face 22nd-ranked American Sebastian Korda before