Tennis coach and former pro Darren Cahill believes that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is capable of causing an upset to the top six male stars in the Australian Open in Melbourne.

The first Grand Slam of the 2014 season gets underway next week and the majority of eyes will be on defending champion Novak Djokovic and the likes of Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Roger Federer.

While Tsonga may not be listed among the favourites for the tournament, Cahill believes that the Frenchman is in great form heading into the major.

The 48-year-old, who will be working as an analyst for ESPN's televised coverage of the tournament in the US, has told Sports Mole that Tsonga should not be ruled out as he is "capable of beating anyone".

"I think Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the one, he's ranked 10th at the moment," said Cahill. "He's the one that I feel like, he loves Australia, he's playing great, he's come into the Australian Open a number of times with small injury problems. We got a chance to see him at the Hopman Cup - he put on an outstanding show. He's got a couple of French coaches now and he's worked really hard over the last couple of months.

"It's the first time, this is his words, that he's coming into the Australian summer feeling absolutely perfect with his body. He looks like he's dropped a little bit of weight and moving around the court great. We know Jo can play the tougher tennis we've seen [and] he's capable of beating anyone, so I would keep my eye on Jo."

Tsonga reached the final of the Australian Open in 2008 but failed to get past Djokovic, who secured the crown in four sets.

ESPN.co.uk will provide comprehensive coverage of the 2014 Australian Open Championships with live scores, video, and reports, plus fans can follow all the live action via ESPN CourtCast which provides real-time scoring and graphical play-by-play summaries.