As Australian Opens go, the 2016 edition will go down as somewhat of a bonzer fortnight for the Brits – and the opening weeks of the year certainly point to promising signs for Team GB’s Olympic tennis hopes come Rio. Once again Andy Murray led the charge in the men’s singles, reaching his fifth final in Melbourne before old nemesis Novak Djokovic blocked his path to the trophy once more. Just 24 hours before, Murray had been courtside as older brother Jamie became the first Briton to win the Australian Open men’s doubles title in 82 years when he and Bruno Soares beat Daniel Nestor and Radek Stepanek in three sets. And as if the history books did not have enough new entries with the Murray siblings becoming the first brothers to reach the final of the men’s singles and men’s doubles events at a Grand Slam in the Open era, there was also the small matter of the continued emergence of Johanna Konta. Barely inside the top 150 last July, the Eastbourne resident backed up her fourth round appearance at last year’s US Open by becoming the first British woman to reach the last four of a Grand Slam in more than 30 years. And despite losing to eventual champion Angelique Kerber in the semi-finals, such performances have seen her break in to the world’s top 30 for the first time as Monday’s new WTA world rankings placed her at 28. All of this bodes very well when it comes to Team GB trying to better their gold and silver medal from the tennis at London 2012 – something Murray Jr certainly has one eye on. [quote:Nothing comes close to the Olympics: Andy Murray:left] “Nothing comes close to it, some people say football World Cup, but at the Olympics you have all of the best athletes in the world across all of the sports competing for their countries, and it comes round once every four years so there is a lot of pressure on everyone to perform,” he said late last year. "I'm really looking forward to it; it should be a great event. In the tennis calendar it comes at a tough time because we have Wimbledon, the following week is the Davis Cup, then the Olympics a couple of weeks after that. "So it is a very busy time of year, but we'll adjust my schedule so I can hopefully peak and play my best tennis at the Olympics. "[I am] really looking forward to it, I would imagine it will be great fun over there, probably hot, tough conditions, but the Olympics is the biggest sporting event in my opinion by far.” Before then however comes the small matter of qualification with the top 56 players in the world rankings on June 6 qualifying for the singles competitions. Things are slightly different in the doubles with the top 24 teams qualifying based on rankings although with many partnerships, as in the case of Murray and Soares, of dual nationality, players in the top ten can then reserve a place provided they have a partner to compete with. Andy has already spoken only of his desire to defend his men’s singles medal from four years ago, while Konta is now currently comfortably inside the qualification places for the women’s singles, while at 85 in the world, Britain’s number two Heather Watson is an outside bet if she does well at major events until June. Four years ago, Andy Murray won mixed doubles silver alongside Laura Robson although chances are older brother Jamie could well be the leading the charge this time around, perhaps alongside Andy following their Davis Cup exploits together, in the men’s doubles. Whatever the doubles permutations, one thing is for sure though– it’s certainly an exciting time to be a fan of British tennis. Sportsbeat 2016