The Australian Open is set to kick off the Grand Slam tennis calendar, bringing the eyes of the sporting world to Australia as usual.
Melburnians like to boast their city is the sporting capital of Australia and, for the next fortnight at least, they'll be correct.
The Australian Open is ready to go for another year but if you believe the bookmakers, 2016 will be much the same as 2015 in the men's singles.
World number one, Serb Novak Djokovic, made the finals of all four Grand Slam tournaments last year, and won three of them, including the title at Melbourne Park.
It's little wonder he's a short-priced favourite to win his sixth Australian Open title- and it's also no surprise he's trying to keep his great run from last year going this year.
"I'm here to focus on the Australian Open, I think, as all the players taking part in this years first grand slam, I would like to do the best as I can and fight for the trophies. 2015 was the best season and best year of my life undoubtedly and I enjoyed every moment spent on the court and I'll try to obviously carry that confidence and high level of performance that I've had, especially towards the end of the year, into the new season."
Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Stan Wawrinka will lead the pack of men trying to knock Djokovic off his throne.
Two Australians have managed to be seeded amongst the men: Bernard Tomic is the 16th seed, and Nick Kyrgios the number 29 seed.
And there'll be plenty of local lvoe for Lleyton Hewitt as well, playing his final career Grand Slam.
He'll start his campaign against fellow Australian James Duckworth.
The women's singles is a little more wide open than the men's, but like the male draw, it's the competitor who won last year who's favoured to take it out again.
Serena Williams will be looking for her seventh Australian Open singles title.
And by the sounds of it, if it doesn't come her way, it won't be due to lack of work.
"I'm at 120, 130 per cent right now, so we're just, you know, this week and the weeks leading up, has been a lot of work. I actually wanted to have an easy day today but to me in my mind 'easy' is just two hours of really intense working out."
Victoria Azarenka, looking for her first Grand Slam title since her 2013 Australian Open win, and world number two Simona Halep of Romania, who's never won a Grand Slam, are Williams' main rivals this time around.
Only one Australian managed a seeding amongst the ladies- Samantha Stosur is in the number 25 slot.
The draw has her poised for a big third round showdown against number four seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, or Canadian glamour girl Eugenie Bouchard.
Whilst the tennis aces will be sweating it out for glory over the next two weeks, one man who's already achieved it is Toby Price.
The 28-year-old from the New South Wales Hunter Valley is the first Australian to ever win the Dakar rally after clinching victory in the motorbikes section.
He won 5 of 13 stages but the new toast of Australian motorsport hasn't yet come to terms with his achievement.
In football, there's not much that's sweeter than a last-minute goal against your local rival to clinch a win on their home turf.
This marvellous fate was the lot of Sydney FC in Round 15 of the A-League.
Shane Smeltz's 90th minute effort earned the Sky Blues a 2-1 victory over the Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday night.
Sydney FC are now undefeated in the last six Sydney derbies, and have won the last three.
Sydney FC Coach Graham Arnold couldn't resist using his team's recent dominance to have a little jab at his rivals after the game.
"Maybe it's playing on their minds. You know, I read a few comments during the week from some of their players that it's been a long while since they've won a derby, and a couple of them don't even know what it's like to win a derby."
Cheering almost as loud as Sydney FC fans at Smeltz's winner were Brisbane Roar fans.
Sydney's win keeps the Roar on top of the table, despite their four-nil loss to Melbourne Victory on Friday night.
In other results, Newcastle Jets beat Wellington Phoenix three-one, Perth Glory drew two-all with Melbourne City, and the last-placed Central Coast Mariners, despite having just announced the signing of former Spanish international Luis Garcia for the rest of the season at least, were beaten three-one by Adelaide United.
And in the W-League, Brisbane Roar has claimed the last finals place with a nil-all draw against Newcastle Jets.
The Jets needed to win to be a chance of making the top four.
Brisbane's Claire Polkinghorne told the ABC despite the fact that a draw was enough for the side to secure a finals berth, they didn't change their mentality.
"We spoke during the week that we're going to prepare exactly like we are for every other game, and you want to be winning football matches, and you don't want to go out and play for the draw, because that's when things start to go wrong. So we really put a strong focus on preparing the way we usually do, and we did that this week...a strong defensive performance, and we just need to tidy a few things up for next week."
It's little wonder that some things need to be tidied up for next week- Brisbane face Melbourne City, who are 12 wins from 12 games this season, in the first week of the finals.
The other match in week one of the playoffs sees Canberra United play Sydney FC.
